Entirely Probable
by Rayzor14
Summary: In confindement, Susan and Dukey learn to seek comfort from unlikely sources. Mary and Johnny find friendship in unlikely allies. Either way, they come to find that everything's not as it seems, but hey. It's entirely probable.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: **Yes, I like Johnny Test. And I'm disappointed that there's so little fan fiction for it. One would think that something like this would at least warrant a few good, thought provoking stories but so far, that's not the case. So here's my entry into the Johnny Test achieves.

First off, this story only came to be as a spur of the moment deal, but now I think I have the story line done enough for me to feel confident in writing it. So here's the prologue and let me say to you this: I rarely do prologues and when I do, it's usually means I'm dead set on completing that story. This is definitely one of my more complex stories and certain themes may not be for everyone.

Second, please note that this story is Susan and Mary centric with Dukey, Johnny, Wakko, Brian-Freezer, Mittens, Bling-Bling, and Gil Nexdor as Major characters. The rest will be revealed later on. The story will more often than not tend to focus on Susan but Mary is without a doubt one of my favorite animated female characters of all time.

Thirdly, this is not, I repeat NOT a romance story by any means although it will happen from time to time. Mainly its friendship-based and deals with the relationships that occur between the Test family as they deal with this new situation. So enough rambling, enjoy and please review.

Entirely Probable

Prologue: Evident Success

_How did this happen?_

As she sat alone in her electro-stasis, titanium reinforced cell, it had become the only question she come bring herself to ask. Even with all her scientific and technological knowledge, she was helpless to do anything to improve her current situation. As she leaned against the sole un-electrified wall, she silently reflected back on the events prior and how hopelessly obvious that this was almost entirely her fault.

_It was Saturday. Which meant two things were bound to occur: Gil Nexdor would be hard at work on his lawn, hacking down the knee tall grass with his dad's manual push mower. This meant that the combination of the blazing hot sun and laborious work would cause him to sweat profusely and whip his forest green shirt to ease the rising heat. As a result, Susan and Mary Test would stare dreamingly at the teen's sculpted form through the window of their above ground lab. _

"_Ahhh, shirt-less Gil." they both said lovingly as their eyes stared to form hearts._

_This had been going on for as long as the two super-genius twins could remember. The boy was a god, or possibly a demi-god because in Mary's opinion demi-gods were way hotter, and the mere sight of their body glistening sweat made them want to melt. However, they knew that any attempt to win his affections never worked or back-fired in the most comical ways. For example, one of their most recent attempts involved using morphic fields as a way influence his thoughts into want to come over and smother them with his affection._

_However, it back-fired in the form of his bull dog, whose morphic field had been influenced instead, and had rushed into the house and smothered them in wet, slobbery dog kisses. They grimaced in disgust. Even the Turbo Hydro Cleaner 2000 failed to rid them of the truly horrible sensation that there was still lingering licks of drool on them. _

"_Hey my super-genius sisters who I love so much and would do anything for!"_

_Enter Johnny, the second thing that was occur on this faithful day. The flame haired child was always a frequent visitor to the lab, most of the time either out of boredom or need of some invention to do something so trivial or mundane that he was simply too lazy to do himself. Today, it most likely the first._

"_What do you want, Johnny?" they both said simultaneously with the same deadpan expression_

"_I'm bored. Make me a Super Robo-Buddy so me and Dukey can play Extreme Ultimate Laser Tag!" he demanded_

"_Oh, and can you make it with a built-in coffee maker? I like to have that extra jolt when I play laser tag." the mixed-breed canine asked_

_Dukey was a secret from both their parents and anyone they didn't want to know. Their dad had placed the girls under a strict no genetic-extermination rule which Dukey clearly broke. The talking dog had been programmed with an extensive language library, noble and easy-going nature, and love for steak, coffee, and a combination of the two. The dog was also as mischievous as Johnny and so one needn't wonder why he was his constant companion. _

"_Beat it, Johnny." Susan said impatiently "Can't you see we're watching shirt-less Gil?"_

"_But you guys own me. Remember?" the young boy reached in his pocket and pulled out a small LCD screen, flaunting it in their faces._

_The girls both groaned. They knew that on the device was a recording of their various failed experiments, anyone of which would've easily grounded them for easily a year. Sighing in defeat, they conceded and promptly went to work their little brother's request._

_Caution Sign._

_No more than half an hour later, the two were finished and proudly introduced their feat of technological genius._

"_Behold: The Robo-Buddy 2000!" Susan proclaimed_

_Truth be told, the design and function of the Robo-Buddy was based off largely off of Wakko's design. Only this one wouldn't grow spikes and giant transmorphing arm cannons bent on keeping them caged inside their house. Alright, maybe it did have a small photon cannon, but it was only for defense purposes. Outside of that, the purple, blue and white robot was designed now with bipedal legs as opposed to the original tire trends as well as full four digit hands complete with thumbs. Mary flicked a switch and the miniature palmate activated. _

"_**Let's Play.**__" it droned in a lifelessly voice_

"_Alright!" Johnny exclaimed and grabbed his playamte as he and Dukey made a dash for the door._

_Everything that happened next seemed to occur in a blur. Thousands of shards of glass rained down on the poor, unsuspecting group as they screamed in surprise. Then, an echoing, crazed laugh entered the room. The four instantly shot their heads up, looking at three floating figures propelled by jetpacks. And in the center was Wakko, the mad toy maker. _

"_Wakko! What are you doing?" Johnny asked, inching his way towards the hidden switch that would unlock the lab's vast array of weapons. _

"_Oh, you know why I'm here," the crazed man shouted "to get revenge on you, Johnny Test!"_

_Johnny's angry and cornered expression quickly changed as his hand pressured against the wall, a hiss revealing a plethora of weaponry ranging from conventional to situational to simply absurd. Johnny quickly reached for a conventional blaster and began open-fire with his trio of nemesis'. Dukey soon followed suit and before they knew it, their laboratory had become a battlefield. Laser fire rained from above as well from the ground as the opposing sides attempted to strike the other down. _

_In the midst of this chaos, Wakko had turned his sights from the meddlesome flame headed boy to the red head crouched behind a computer terminal, completely unaware that she was within his sight. _

_Susan panted from her hiding place, peeking out every so often to see how her brother and his dog were faring. Currently, the battle appeared to be a stalemate as neither side could gain leeway from the other. Johnny tried to make his way back to the weapons wall but was blocked by a towering wall of ice that the Brain Freezer had shot from his Chilliccino machine. Mittens was firing trigger happily at Dukey, a deranged look in his eye as he fired his blaster over and over again, each time missing by the slightest hair. _

"_If I could just get to computer, I could activate the home defenses…" Mary said slyly as she inched from behind the barrel of bananas that were to be Lolo's lunch._

_Mary had always been more adventurous and ready to believe in the impossible than her strictly logical sister. Even her crush on Gil was explained by her as 'the biological need to seek out the most eligible mate to reproduce.' But what she was about to attempt now was beyond mere adventurous and crossed into the realms of pure stupidity. Waiting for just the right moment, she dashed out from her safe zone into the open. _

_Her white lab coat ruffled in her wake, trailing behind as she zigzagged this way and that to avoid being caught in the crossfire. Even as she was over half way to her target, she could have sworn she felt her brain throwing the mother of all conniptions at her needlessly reckless behavior. She didn't care. All that mattered was getting to the computer and activating the defenses. _

_A stray laser fire stop just short of her and she slid into a skid, going below the blasts trajectory and landing her at the foot of the monolithic computer. Her hands quickly glided over the keyboard, a string of commands being keyed in a series of seconds. When she finished, she hit enter and found a blaring, flashing light beaming in her face. _

"_Oh no! Wakko's implanted a computer virus!" Mary said franticly_

_Johnny took a brief reprieve and yelled at his motionless Robo-Buddy._

"_Hey, you wanna lend a hand?" Johnny asked_

_The robot complied and its arm whirred loudly as it transfigured into a cannon…pointed at Johnny. Before he could even protest, a powerful, concussive blast struck his chest and sent him flying into the wall. _

"_Johnny!" Mary shouted with concern_

_Susan stared at her little brother, checking for signs of injury. Luckily, the constant experiments to his eleven-year-old body had made it quite resilient to pain and injury, rendering him dazed but still fully conscience. The girl took one glance at the robot and went wide-eyed as the realization struck her. _

_She had used Wakko's first Robo-Buddy as a base and simply built around it. She hadn't taken into consideration that she should've overridden the robots primary objective and not simply its sub-systems. She had effectively re-created Wakko's Robo-Buddy without the Security Upgrade and Automatic Defense Program but with the same programmed intent on destroying Johnny. She would've tried to help Johnny if not for the nerve-numbing blast to her back which knocked her out. _

"_Susan!" No sooner did the two remaining Test siblings utter the word, a pained howl filled their ears as Dukey went down the count. _

_Wakko smiled at his own sharp shooting and released a pair of yellow orbs from his pocket. The sphere each beelined for one of the fallen Test family members before unfurling into matching straightjackets._

"_Whaddaya want, Wakko!" Johnny asked, fist balling in rage._

_The man chuckled under his breath and smiled smugly "I already told you, Johnny. I'm here for revenge," the crazed inventor then pointed a finger to their fallen family "by taking your two greatest assets!"_

_Mary and Johnny were speechless as they watched Dukey and Mary be hoisted in the air by the hovering drones, hanging limply and unconscious in their restricting arms. And then, just like they arrived, they zoomed off into the distance, bringing along the spoils of their battle._

Susan quietly hung her head and wrapped her arms around her knees. Tears edged at the corner of her eyes, tiny streams falling down. No matter how she looked at it, it was all her fault. All of it.

**Author's Notes: **If you haven't figured t out yet, Wakko has kidnapped Dukey and Susan. The question is why? How will Susan and Dukey react to their new living arrangements? How will Johnny and Mary save their family? Is Wakko certifiably insane? All these answers and more next time on EP!

Also, the Caution Sign stands in place of a break and means that a change in scenery or shift in time has occurred like in the show. This might change depending on the circumstance so keep your eyes open. TTFN!


	2. Chapter 2

Entirely Probably

Chapter 1: Stimulating Imprisonment

Wakko sat alone in his quarters, twiddling his fingers. All he could think about was how incredibly easy his plan had gone over. Whenever he had faced Johnny in the past, no matter how certain or well-designed the death trap was, the meddlesome flame-headed boy always seemed to have some quick-witted plan or gadget that saved him from his destruction. He always assumed that Johnny might've been some kind of super-genius or other until he spied on the boy during his last botched attempt at his termination.

It had been quite obvious that while Johnny was adaptive, most of his success was attributed to the inventive genius of his sisters and the wisdom of his talking dog. It was because of his sisters that he had escaped and foiled his plans against kid kind everywhere while his intuitive canine kept or at the very least warned him about any immediate danger. A smile creased his face. But now, without them, the boy would be helpless against him and distraught over the suddenly lost of his friend and family.

Wakko leaned back in the swivel chair and laughed uproariously over the genius of his plan. After getting the insanity out of his system, for the moment at least, he stood up and made his way out the door.

Caution Sign.

Susan whipped her head behind her. The noise of tacky, black loafers had made her jump in surprise and seeing Wakko's twisted smile from behind the electrified walls made her cringe involuntary. The short man tilted his head to the side and cupped a hand on his chin, staring at the ground in front of the red haired genius.

"Whatcha got there?" he asked, eyes hinting at the floor.

"Oh, that's just some basic Quantum Mechanics with a little String Theory doodled on the side." Susan replied as she glanced at the ground.

The floor of her cell wasn't necessarily dirt as much as it was dust that had accumulated from its time of inactivity. The layer of grim was thick enough and pliable enough for her to trace a few equations into the muck. Susan always felt better when she did equations because they made sense and when things made sense, she could control them. Maybe it was the strange jumble of symbols that gave her the courage to look at her captor with a more firm and authoritive voice.

"So what did you want, anyway? I doubt you came for congregational visit." Her voice was etched with pure sarcasm.

Wakko smiled "Of course it is. Why else would I visit my most beautiful prisoner?"

Susan frown and backed away slightly. The compliment wasn't exactly unwelcome but it was a bit unnerving hearing it from one of Johnny's (and by extension her) arch nemesis. She quickly masked her surprise, not wanting to let him know she had been startled.

"Hmm…" Wakko cupped his chin again, juggling the consequences of the question he about to pose "Those are some pretty complex equations." Best to start with compliments.

"Not really. Everyone at the Porkbelly Institute learns this in their first semester." Was Wakko complimenting her? Just what was he playing at?

"Still, for someone your age to get something like this and understand it is impressive." That's right, keeping 'em coming so she'll be less likely to say no.

"Well I wouldn't be much of a _super _genius if I couldn't." Okay, Wakko was definitely up to something. She'd read enough on behavioral patterns to know that the toy-maker wanted something.

"Say, sweetie," Alright, time to go for broke "how'd you like to get outta this cell for awhile. Maybe help me with a little something'?"

Susan stared wide-eyed at the man, equally from his proposal and his debonair and somewhat creepy speech. Despite finding he latter completely repulsive, she had to consider his offer. She knew that anything he wanted couldn't be good but she wasn't doing much outside of slumming inside her cell. With a firm and thoughtfully decision, she nodded and replied "Sure, why not? Oh, and _don't _call me sweetie."

Caution Sign.

Moan. That's all Dukey could do as his head rested beneath a firmly planted fur foot. He ascended his gaze until he met his tormentor's: Mittens the Cat. He wanted to growl. Gosh, if he didn't want to growl but his vocal cords were far too exhausted from the efforts of moaning, let alone growl. Mittens grinned smugly and applied even more pressure to the dog's forehead. Man, for a cat he was abnormally strong. Maybe the burnout really did put some effort into his creation.

Mittens grin twisted into a wicked scowl as he abruptly slammed Dukey's head to the floor, chuckling as the mutt yelped from the shock. He could see the pathetic, pleadful look in his emerald eyes, practically begging him to stop. He laughed haughtily, throwing his feline features into the air.

"Why?" Dukey managed through his restricted and strained jaw.

"Why? You, a dog, ask why I, a cat, am doing this to you? Because of what your kind has done to mine! You chase us up trees, jump us in alleyways, and tip over our milk! In any other situation I might consider being sympathic, but you." Mittens bent down, gravity shifting even more of his weight on top of him "You're on a whole 'nother level. You've beaten us brutally, catapulted us over hills, startled us into ambushes. You lousy mutt even dumped water on poor, innocent kittens!"

At this, he tugged at Dukey's ears, causing another yelp of pain. His eyes leveled with his own and narrowed in anger.

"Such a filthy mutt such as yourself deserves everything that's coming to you."

With that, he simultaneously released both his grip and his hold, allowing the poor excuse for a mutt to raise his head. Before he could even catch his breath, the cat tossed a large bundle of clothes over him.

"Put it on." he demanded

Dukey hesitantly and reluctantly slid on the black outfit. When he was finished, he realized he looked remarkably like a butler, down to the red tie and white undershirt. Mittens smiled smugly.

"Albert's out of town , used up all his sick and vacation days doing it too." _Stupid labor laws, _he thought bitterly "You'll make a nice replacement until he gets back."

"And if I _don't_?" Dukey asked, arms crossed

Mittens smiled and twirled a small, blue device round his finger. Dukey instinctively looked down and saw that a rather flashy collar was strung around his furry neck. Didn't take the genetically-altered pooch long to figure out the relationship between the two.

"I press this button and you'll get a rather nasty shock." his smile never waned and the playfulness in his voice made him sound all the more sinister.

"And what about when I take it?" Dukey had no doubt in his mind the key would end up in his possession.

"Anything with the slightest heat signature that touches this besides me will set it _and _the collar to explode."

When these words hit him, Dukey found it impossible to keep his cool. He wanted to say 'I going to freak out now' and start flailing about like a lunatic but he didn't for the simple reason that he didn't want to show any weakness in front of the cat lest he take even more advantage of him.

"…Fine." he said submissively.

Mittens, with great restraint, didn't break out into maniacal laughter. He wanted to, he really, _really _wanted to, but such pleasures are best saved for later. The burgundy cat promptly snatched a glass of milk from the table next to him, sipped, and poured it on the floor.

"Get cleaning, mutt."

Caution Sign.

"Well, that's the last of it." Mary groaned and popped her back into place.

After the sudden attack and kidnapping, the two remaining Test siblings found themselves amongst a heap of mess and rubble. With Wakko's virus disabling not only their computers but by extension the drones as well, they realized with great depression that they had to do all the backbreaking clean up themselves. It had taken the better part of the afternoon and early into the evening before they were finished, everything that could ache was doing just that.

"I'm pooped." Johnny said and promptly collapsed on a sofa that was conveniently placed near him.

Mary sighed and also collapsed onto the oddly placed couch which was in reality the repurposed Automatic-Cleaning Couch, now turned into a harmlessly piece of furniture. The teen whipped a bead of sweat from her forehead, preventing it from traveling any further down her face. Despite being as active as any girl her age, such work was still tiring. It took all her energy to get up and check her atomic clock.

"6:16. Mom and Dad should be back soon." Mary said wearily as her head plopped back on the pillow.

"I could really go for some Red Gush right now." Johnny muttered tiredly "Hey, fuzzy buddy, let's get some-"

Johnny froze, the events of this afternoon flowing back in spaded. The lasers, the battle cries, and Wakko's twisted smile as he made off with two of his most cherished people. The urge to cry, to literally weep his eyes out was suppressed by an overwhelming need to hit something and hit it hard. Lack of energy kept him from doing even that, so he settled on immeasurable anger.

Susan was also feeling her fair share of grief over the lost of her twin, her other half as she would often joke her about. She suddenly found herself missing her terribly, longing to see her face as it contorted into blind rage over another failed attempt at their Gil's heart.

"_Girls! Johnny! We're home!"_

The two sibling nearly went into cardiac arrest when they heard the booming voice of their father. Suddenly finding themselves filled with energy, they propped themselves up and raced out the lab door. Downstairs, their parents were waiting patiently for their children, mildly confused when they saw only two of them come down.

"Where's Susan?" their asked, glancing around the room

"Oh,um…she's…at….the University!" Mary shouted, fringing a smile "Yeah! She's working on a personal project, say's she'll be back by tomorrow. _Or next Wednesday."_

"And Dukey?" Johnny's father asked

"At the vet!" Johnny had found himself in such positions so many times that he'd come up with a multitude of excuses to cover his fuzzy buddy's butt "He's getting vaccinated. Shouldn't take more than a day or two."

"…Alright. I'll be upstairs going over Monday's figures." the brunette declared and walked up the stairs

"And I'll be working on dinner. Tonight's menu: Meatloaf Surprise!" the blond house keeper said and made his way happily to the kitchen

Johnny and Susan both sighed and then groan, first over the success of their excuses and then over the fact that their stomach would be put through another night of disgusting torture at the hands of the head Test's cuisine. The duo quickly made their way back upstairs and into the lab, slamming the door behind them.

"Well, that'll buy us some time until tomorrow at least." Mary had already begun to dance her fingers over the keyboard, keying in a flurry of commands.

" Whatever. Let's just find Wakko so we can rescue the guys, beat 'im senseless, and be back in time for dinner." Johnny grimaced at the last part, knowing that he'd be off food for a good two days afterwards

Mary was about to agree when a window opened up on the screen. Her eyes went wide and she keyed them in again, receiving the same window as before. The color drained from her face and she found herself activating every search engine that was still active on the system.

"What's wrong?" Johnny asked, almost boringly

"I…I can't find Wakko." Mary said with dread "He's nowhere in Porkbelly or even on the global network!"

"Say wha?"

"Wakko's gone! Vanished without a trance! There's not so much as an ion trail to follow. I'm pretty sure he's using some kind of cloaking field but we don't have the resources to even begin looking for it." Mary was in hysterics, racking her super genius brain for the answer to this increasingly frustrating problem.

"What about Eugene?" Johnny inquired "He'd have the junk you'd need, right?"

Mary pondered the notion. It was true, Eugene was a genius in his own right, coming surprisingly close to the Test twins in intelligence. However, his ego and tendency to shout his plans usually foiled any evil plan he find hatch, the entirety of which were to gain Susan's affections. Mary sighed. She _really _didn't want to have to resort to asking him for help if she could. But the situation was starting to look grim and the disabled lab presented little other options. Somberly, she typed in the command to activate the video phone line.

"_What do you want, Joh-…Mary Test?" _the stout, plump boy in the live feed was a bit shocked to see her calling

"Listen Eugene-"

"_Bling-Bling Boy! My name is Bling-Bling Boy!" _the rich kid was growing tired of them referring them to his rather embarrassing first name.

"Listen, Bling-Bling, I got a favor to ask you…"

Caution Sign.

Mary repressed the urge to gasp in wonder. Wakko's workshop was no bigger than Johnny's and her parents' room but it was still a sight to behold. He had every tool imaginable hanging from the shelves or hooks or racks or nails. Dozens of bundled wires ran parallel to the wall, sparking large arcs of lightening that illuminated the already lit room. Beakers, test tubes, machine parts, and half-filled jars of floating spare body parts littered everywhere. His future plans and invention were spread out on the desk, detailed drawing showing just where, how, and in some cases, when to proceed with them.

Wakko gave a toothy grin at the girl's fascination. Snapping his fingers to break her from her trance, the toymaker led the girl over to one of his work stations. This one was surprisingly clean, save the ruined floor, and was occupied by only a simple white, flame-headed crash dummy.

"What? He's my _arch _enemy! What did you think, I'd just throw darts at his pictures? Too boring." Wakko said as he dismissed the girl's glare

"Now then," the blue haired man started as he reached over to his desk "tell me what you think of this."

In his hand was a set of jacks, colored bright orange, blue, and red. Mary looked as unimpressed as she normally would if she saw jacks. She was never quite good at the game and found it impossible to make it pass twosies. Wakko smiled once more and tossed out the jacks, which landed neatly in front of the dummy. Then, holding up the orange, checkered ball, he flicked at the jacks…

…which exploded. Mary failed desperately in her attempt to hide her shock, espically when she saw the charred remains of the dummy.

"Well?" Wakko asked with a smile

"That's horrible!" Susan cried, clasping her hands over her gaping mouth

Wakko sighed, the smile leaving his face "I'm not asking what you think of it from a normal viewpoint. I want to hear your opinion from a _scientific _perspective."

Susan, still mildly shocked over the display, quickly jerked herself out of that state of mind. She was, after all a scientist, and it went against her nature to let something as petty as morals stand between her and knowledge. Looking at the dummy, she quickly summed up what she believed happened.

"The jacks were explosives, probably plastic, and the ball acted as its trigger. When it hit the ground, it sent a pulse out to the surrounding jacks, activating the volatile agents and setting them off." Mary surmised "It has some great military applications, allowing for soldiers to carry enough explosives to level a building pretty much in a zip-lock."

Wakko's smile returned "Not only that, but the balls can be programmed to only activate a certain color. It can even be randomized so it never activates in the same order twice."

Susan frown and crossed her arms. As much as she hated to admit, the jacks _did _have impressive military applications, but months of dealing with increasingly inept officials had rendered her opinion of the armed forces quite low. So busy was she in her evaluation of her country's questionable military leaders, she didn't notice as a fresh, white lab coat was given to her.

"I thought you'd need a new one." Wakko himself was also sporting a lab coat with the addition of goggles "Now then, let's get started, shall we my lovely assistant?"

**Author's Notes**: Finally done! Sorry for the wait but I've just been surprisingly lazy lately. Anyway, the rating of this story will not change, even though Mittens scene with Dukey may have been just a tad darker than the rest. No Brain Freezer or Gil this chapter but most definitely in the next. And yes, Susan is now Wakko's assistant. Won't this be fun?

TTFN!


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes: **Argh! A whole month since an update! What's wrong with me! Well, there's writer's block and laziness for one plus a recent report card's got my butt in hot water. But enough about my problem's, let's see how our favorite Test siblings are doing. Remember, R&R! Seriously, R&R!

Entirely Probable

Chapter 3: Conforming Routines

"Quarter-Half Crest Socket Wrench 7!"

With an irritated groan, Mary complied with the boy genius's request and handed him the rather complex looking tool. The stout boy didn't even bother to look up as he continued to work on mechanical casing of the terminal. Snatching the tool rather impatiently from the girl's hand, he diligently started to ratchet the uniquely shaped bolts back into place.

The call with Eugene had lasted a total of one, incredible long minute before he agreed to come and assist the Test siblings. A quick trip by Matter Transporter and he along with a duffel bag full of tools were in the ruined lab. Even now, after almost six hours of intense technological tinkering, the lab resumed what it was after a mild explosion. Still, Mary had to say she found the rich kid to be something of a mystery at the moment.

The boy was _far _from the fittest boy his age and was at times as selfish and self-serving as one would expect from those belonging to the upper crust of society, but here he was, doing all the leg work while he insisted Johnny and Mary stay out of it save for a fetching him the occasional tool. The red head's mental gears started to turn, churning out half a dozen reasons behind her fellow genius's strange behavior.

"Almost…got it…" Eugene muttered as his arm's rippled with the little muscle he did have

Almost immediately after the bolt tightened, a sudden surge of electricity sent the brunette flying into a wall.

"Eugene!" Mary cried while Johnny briskly walked over "You okay?"

The egotistic lad shook his head, clearing the stars and bangs from his eyes. Mary visible grimaced at the sight of the boy. His normally neatly combed locks now fell in wet, greasy strands in his face while sweat literally poured from his pores. His signature attire was ripped and torn and his bling tarnished with soot. He looked, to put it lightly, awful. However, despite his appearance, he smiled, his teeth being luckily intact.

"Great! The sub-systems should be back online now and I can finally start working on repairing the central mainframe." Eugene said happily as he rose to his feet

Johnny watched as his on/off foe walked over to the large terminal and started keying in commands. The guy, who was normally such a rather lazy chap, was now single handedly repairing the lab. The flame headed boy shook his head. _Love makes people do stupid things _Dukey had once told him. Whither or not this was a stupid thing was still up for debate, but for now, it was a welcome break after having to clean the entire.

Johnny yawned widely and let his suddenly tired eyes drift towards the clock…

"1:30!" he shouted incredulously

Mary looked up as well and noticed the neon green numbers. Time had gotten away from them pretty quickly it would seem. She suddenly found her brother's yawning contagious as she let loose a jaw popping yawn. She turned her attention to Bling-Bling, who was now typing away furiously at the monitor. It seemed as if the system reformatting was progressing pretty fast, but her attention was reserved for the boy in front of her, who looked as if he would fall out at the drop of a hat.

"Eug-Bling-Bling," Mary started as her exhausted brother raced off for bed "Shouldn't you get some sleep?"

"Yeah, yeah. Right after I finish reprogramming your central processor." he responded in a rush while he typed

He had barely turned around to speak but she could see the familiar look of persistence and restlessness in his eyes that so easily resembled her brother's. As such, she knew that there was really no talking him out of his work. Sighing, she walked up and grabbed him by the nap of his very sweaty clothes and dragged him away from the terminal.

Ignoring his furious protest, she reached in her coat pocket and produced a remote. Pressing the first of the many colorful buttons, the floor in front of her whirred open and produced a set of bunk beds, neatly folded dark blue sheets and white pillows adorning them. Eugene took a break from his ranting to notice the beds and immediately put two and two together. The twins spent so much time in the lab that it had practical become their rooms so they thought they might as well add the beds for those partially long nights.

"The tops mine." Mary instructed as she released her captive and started to climb the ladder "The bottom's Susan. Just don't tell her I let you sleep in her bed, okay?"

Eugene took a moment to look completely awestruck before hopping into the nocturnal resting place of his beloved Susan. He wrapped himself in the sheets and twisted himself carefully as he breath deeply the sweet scent of her vanilla fragranced shampoo and conditioner. He could feel the faint groves that her form had so painstakingly worn into the mattress. Tiny strands of her luscious red hair curled around his fingers. Never had he felt so close to his love, so near to her…

Mary rolled her eyes as she heard soft snoring punctuated with a soft repetition of 'Susan'. A small smile graced her lips as she closed her eyes. At least now she didn't feel so alone.

Yield.

An even measured hand carefully eyeballed a bubbling mixture as they squinted an eye behind thick goggles. Ever so carefully, he eased the liquid into a separate beaker, allowing the fuchsia fluid to blend with its golden neighbor, bubbling to a hissing neon blue. Smiling wickedly, he picked up the beaker full of new liquid and placed it into a microwave-like device. Unlike a microwave, however, there were bundles of thick wiring protruding from all sides with a lightening rod shaped protrusion raising from the top and a complex console attached where the normal interface would be.

And standing behind said interface was a certain super genius red head, shrugging the lab coat back onto her shoulders. Wakko obviously didn't get a lot of assistances her age because it was two sizes too big, but it was nothing a little hemming couldn't fix.

"Ready, my lovely assistance?" Wakko said with that slick pseudo-charm

Susan pouted and glared at him "I've told you to stop calling me that. And yes, we're ready."

With a push of a button, the experiment commenced. The small device hummed to life and true to its likeness lightly glowed and faintly hummed in a consistent drone. Suddenly, it lost any subtlety it might've had as it erupted in a brilliant display of sparks and blinding light. Even with the goggles, which decreased the magnitude of the flare by a degree of four, it was still blinding. Susan glanced at the controls and saw the sky blue lines dart off the charts.

"We're spiking way earlier than predicted!" she shouted over the commotion

"Are we red lining?" Wakko asked as he started to pull levers and switches

"Not yet!" Susan yelled back as she furiously typed away on the keyboard

The device started to lurch, the humming replaced with a thundering rumbling as electricity started to build above and around the machine. Susan found herself bracing against the console as the energy started to produce gales. Undeterred, she checked over the monitors and found that the Viscousisity Meter started to move about erratically. Her eyes also observed the energy levels were climbing to dangerously high levels at an alarming rate.

"We're reaching critical!" she warned over the now howling wind

"What's our Viscousisity reading?" Wakko yelled back as more levers and knobs were turned

"36 percent and raising!" Long, delicate fingers danced over the console, hitting them with such fury that the keys seemed to only have a fraction of a second to reset before being hammer down once again.

The machine gave another leap and the duo of scientist were near blinded and deafened as the light contorted itself into lightening. The gales were now a full -blown storm, circling and jetting in all directions, leaving Susan to hold on for dear life as her lab coat threatened to be rid of her. Clawing into the sides, she freed one hand to double check the readings. Her eyes widen as she saw the needle bound to precariously towards the red skull and cross bones, her eyes darted a second later to the meter to her left which read exactly 50 percent.

"Now!" She nearly winced as she felt her lungs emptying themselves dry at the hoarse command

Wakko obeyed and slammed a fist on a bright red button, causing the experiment to come to a nearly immediate end. The lightening died to static wisps as the deafening roar became a gentle hum.

DING!

With a huge smile on his face, Wakko placed his goggles on his forehead and marched forward towards the door of the device. Opening it, he carefully pulled the now warmly heated mixture out. He then reached in and pulled out a long strip of blue taffy, snapping it before munching it happily.

Susan, at any other time, would've been quite angry at the effort she'd gone through to obtain taffy. However, it wasn't _normal _taffy.

Wakko swallowed his crewed wad of sweetness and reached in for another. This time, he gently kneaded it like dough until it was roughly the size of a an orange. Taking aim, he watched as the sailing wad collided with the Johnny dummy and splattered onto its chest. The dummy swayed side-to-side before collapsing on the ground, the taffy having sunk into its body.

Wakko had made the taffy in such a way that its molecular structure was immensely dense but only became as such when it impacted a solid surface. Not only that, but it also worked as a type of bonding agent that allowed for a near inseparable bond. However, its major and obvious flaw that it was candy and as such could be nullified by liquid and eaten. The man foresaw this problem and fixed it by making it almost unbearably sweet. His taste receptors had long died in his confection filled youth, so he could easily stomach the taste.

"Mmm, raspberry." He mused as he chewed another strand of the treat

"Okay, so we can mark 'Viscousilious Taffy' as a success. How are thing going with your experimentation of the solidarity of nougat under sub-zero extremes?" Susan received the answer in the form of a solid thud as a glistening ball of caramel fell and cracked the floor "Okay. Moving on…"

Anyone other than the Test family would've found the girl's nonchalantness over the matter to be more than a bit unsettling. The five days had passed in a blur and she had found herself falling into the role of dutiful assistance quite easily (although she would've preferred if she had been the professor). Wakko's strange and often erratic quirks were starting to become more evident; from the slight twitch in his eyes as he stumbled onto an idea to the way he'd laugh manically over a successful testing.

"Susan," Wakko immediately caught the girl's attention "Why don't we call it a day? I have some…personal business I need to take care of."

Nodding in agreement, Susan escorted herself out the room and into the corridor. Despite her initial thoughts, the lair had proved to be quite huge from her understanding. The single corridor alone housed at least five other rooms that were roughly the size of Wakko's. Her focus, however, was on the last door to the right. Sighing a bit, she turned the knob and entered.

The space inside was even smaller than that of Johnny's own dwelling, but Wakko had told her that she'd receive better accommodations as long as she was good assistance. She rolled her eyes as she remembered his full statement and slammed the door behind her. She slid out of her over-sized lab coat and near collapsed her flat mattress. Susan sighed deeply and turned on her side, deep in thought. At first, she had reserved these moments for thinking of ways to escape. Several of her plans seemed sound, but all fell apart when Wakko had refused to allow her access to any tool or device that could aid her escape in the slightest bit. Even if they did work, that still left finding Dukey and she doubted she could do even get his bearings before the lair's security caught her and she simply couldn't just leave him.

"Ugh." the girl sighed before propping herself up against the wall of her bed

She reached under her pillow and pulled out a pad and pen that Wakko had so 'generously' offered her. She wasn't very tired and didn't want to waste her time doing nothing. Clicking the pen, she started to jot down her notes.

Biohazard.

"Thrall!"

Dukey cringed at the new pet name Mittens assigned him before sweeping up the last of his breakfast and hurrying towards his master. He dashed down the well furnished hall, which he just cleaned spotless, through the parlor, which had just been clothed clean, to the study, which he'd vacuumed to perfection. At least, until arrived.

Mittens, donned in a burgundy robe and sash that matched his fur coat while reading a book, sap his milkshake generously before sending the glass to the carpeted floor in pieces. Dukey visibly shivered at the sound, amazed that the cat could smash glass on the fabric covered floor.

"Clean it up, mutt." he ordered and returned to his book

Grabbing his broom and dustpan, he started the work of cleaning the soaked floor. Of course, there was only so much one could do with a broom and pan when attending a spill such as this. Careful not to puncture himself, he swept the shards into the pan and quickly stood to get his vacuum.

A little too quickly, unfortunately, as he hit the arm rest and the jolt caused the cat to drop his book onto the damp floor. The dog's eyes widen in shock as they studied the book than his new master's expression. Slowly, the feline bent down and picked up the hardback, which was now soaked and stained with pink and brown color.

"You…" The canine braced himself as best he could "IDIOT!"

The backhanded strike sent him off his feet and to the floor, wincing. He lifted his paw and lightly dabbed his muzzle, feeling hot, wet liquid and pain. Mittens claws had retracted in anger and the dog quivered in fear of his master's impeding rage.

"Do you have any idea how RARE this book is?" he shouted in the dog's face "This is a First Edition! And it's been out of print for over FIFTY YEARS!"

Dukey yelped as he felt Mittens grip tighten on his left ear. Pulling him close, Mitten struck him again, this time gripping his ear hard to make sure he didn't fall. The genetically-altered pooch shut his eyes tight so he could avoid seeing his master's emanate fist against his now thoroughly bruised face. When he stopped, he gripped both his ears and growled menacingly as a signal to open his eyes.

"You're going to pay for that…" Mittens said in a very threatening tone "But first, I need a drink."

He released his slave and he fell on his butt: hard. His face stung with pain and his ears were aching from the absent of blood for so long. He slowly stood, bowing in respect to his master with fear in his eyes.

"Brain-Freezer, you want anything?" the cat asked to his companion across the room

Brian-Freezer shook his head and stared at the dog as he walked out to retrieve the drink. When they had first returned with their captives, the ice villain was more happy to see the allies of his foe get what they deserved, especially Susan, since it was her invention that had given him a taste of the good life only to snatch it from him a short while later. He condoned Mittens behavior at first, thinking it only fair.

The second and third day he started to lose tolerance for his violent tendencies towards the dog. The fourth had him slightly sick as he watched another brutal beating over spilled milk. The fifth day and he'd lost almost all hatred for the mutt and started to feel sympathetic for him. Today, he had just all he could stomach of the feline's actions and decided to do something about it.

"Mittens," he started as the dog returned with his beverage of choice "you think I could borrow your servant for a while?"

Both Dukey and Mittens looked at him with a surprised expression, only Mittens was less exaggerated than the dog's.

"Why? I have plenty of things I need the mutt here to do before we get to the _fun._" the pure malice that dripped from that word made the canine nearly break out into complete freak mode "Any particular reasons?"

"I have some…experiments that I need assistance with." the blue faced teen said with a sly smile.

Mittens returned it a wicked scowl to boot "Alright, but make sure you don't damage him too badly. Don't want him to break too soon."

The villain shook his head in agreement and Dukey hesitantly followed the teen out the door. They dipped down a corridor before stopping at a room and opening the door, revealing it to be his workshop.

Dukey was taken back suddenly by the appearance. He expected the room to be cold, filled to the very brim with ice related experimental devices and gadgets but instead was a rather plain looking work space with beakers, mechanical and biological parts as well as a large chamber in the rear, hissing wisps of smoke.

"That's the Nitrogen Chamber. I wouldn't suggest going in unless you want to get the worse freezer burn of your life." the cool villain cautioned

The dog turned and, to his shock, watched as the teen's face and ice powered form returned to normal. His shimmering blue armor was replaced with a white button up and green slacks. His spiked, icy blue hair and eyes reverted into warm brunette. He then removed his Chillicino from his right forearm and placed it on the nearest table. He then returned his gaze to the now speechless dog.

"Tell me," the sudden presence of his voice, now much less irritating and evil, made him snap ramrod straight " are you familiar with the concept of Coulomb's Law?"

A puzzled look found it's way to Dukey's face at the statement. Raking his brain briefly, he quickly came upon the nugget of knowledge.

"Yeah. That's the one that says the magnitude of the Electrostatics force of interaction between two point charges is directly proportional to the scalar multiplication of the magnitudes of charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distances between them…if I'm not mistaken." the canine finished

"That's exactly right." the teen said with a slightly raised brow "With that in mind, you should also know that the law basically comes to the repulsion of electric charges."

The teen paced over to a large sheet and, with a grandiose whip of his hands, yanked the sheets off to reveal a stunning device of twin, electric rod made of stainless steel. There was also a set of cables running the length of the base, seeming to hum in melodic symphony. Dukey was so preoccupied with this sight that he didn't even notice the heavy jacket that was tossed t him. Pulling it off his head, he realized it was colored green and blue. A quick glance revealed that the teen's was sporting a similar color scheme of blue and orange.

"What? I like orange." he replied to the dog's questioning stare.

He never did like lab coats. So boring, lifeless, and hideously generic. Nobody said that one had to wear that specific attire when performing experiments, so he opted for something with a bit more style. The jackets were tailored to be as durable as a sheet of steel while still allowing freedom of movement. After slipping the jacket on, he walked to a console, with a smile on his face.

"Do you know what would happen if I ran an electric current with the same charge through both these rods?" he asked as he pulled a switch

Suddenly, lightening started surged through the cables, snapping and curling around the steel until it began its climb up the rods. Electricity suddenly started to dance on the tips of the metal monoliths until they jumped the distance between. As they did, however, the sparks seemed to reject each other, push back at the other with increasing force.

"…Like charges repel and electricity with the same charge will repel each other too." The dogsaid after finally able to muster up a response.

"Good boy. Now, what'd do you think'll happen if I toss this negatively charged ball into the mix?" the teen genius offered with a smile.

By the time he lob the red rubber ball, it was formed in an almost universal circle, offering a perfect goal. The entered the circle before stopping in mid-air, hovering feet above the ground. The sphere vibrated gently as the two like charges struggled for possession of the negative charge.

"…It's trapped between the two like charges. If you leave it alone, it'll stay like that forever, unless an external force moves it." Dukey explained

"Exactly." the teen slammed the switch upwards, causing the electric tug-of-war to come to a complete stop, the ball falling and bouncing on the ground

"Don't take this the wrong way," Dukey's voice instantly caught the teen's attention "but why are studying electromagnetism? Aren't you all about coffee and ice and stuff?"

"That's the problem." the lad sighed as he chucked the ball high in the air

Dukey raised a brow to this.

"Let me ask you something." the dog perked up his ears "If I were to attack Johnny right now, with all of you guys there, what would happen?"

"You'd show up with some ice-themed invention that Susan and Mary would stop with some fire-based invention or Johnny-X would just stop you." the dog didn't have to think long about the question

"Exactly. My whole arsenal is ice-based, meaning anything I try to throw at you, you probably already have something ready to hit me back with." he caught the ball and chucked it again "I'm too predictable."

"So you wanna what, expand your field of expertise?" Dukey ventured

"Right again, my furry faced friend. Since I spent most of my time working on my Cryo-Caffeine research, I never really had time to do or even want to do much else." He caught and chucked the ball again

"Why didn't you just go to some classes? You are a student there, right?" Dukey noticed his eyes sadden slightly

"I'm not technically a student since my IQ wasn't PI material, so I got stuck as a janitor assistance and handy man. Basically, I was just hired help." the way he said the last sentence made Dukey feel a tug at his heart strings.

"No ordinary person could've made all of this plus your cryo-caffeine research. You're way smarter than any hired help." Dukey mentally kicked himself. Why was he giving the enemy a pep talk! They're the one's keeping him here!

"At least someone thinks so." the statement was so low, only the canine's sensitive hearing allowed him to hear it. He was now starting to have doubts as to why this guy was a villain.

"Um…So what else have you been working on?" Dukey asked, trying to get off of what was undoubtedly a touchy subject.

"A little of everything: Forensics, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Genetics, Mechanical Engineering, String Theory, Dimensional Harmonics, Temporal harmonics, Anatomy, Ecology, Marine Biology-'

"Alright, alright, I get it." Dukey said jokingly "So why'd you want me, anyway?" It was question that'd been bugging him since he go here

"Because Susan's with Wakko and you're more well read in general science than _Mittens_." The last word was laced with resentment, which caused a small smile to grace Dueky's blacken lips.

"Alright, I get it. You want some help. No problem, but on one condition:" the teen glanced up at the dog, expecting him to ask for his freedom or something along those lines "tell me your name."

The question must've caught him off guard because he completely abandoned catching the ball. The dog flashed him a friendly smile.

"I can't call you 'kid' or 'dude' all the time and 'Brain-Freezer' is a bit too lengthy for my tastes."

The boy looked up at the dog with a surprised look in his eyes before smiling gently.

"It's Louis." he said with a smile "Now come on, Duke Meister. Today's an excellent day for some science!"

Smiling at his new nickname, the canine paced after his newest master.

Trefoil.

It was amazing what could be accomplished in as little as six days. In that time frame, Mary and Eugene had the lab back up and running, allowing them access to the construction drones who were now finishing the final repairs to the lab while also creating the solution to the problem of their missing family.

"_Mary, I'm ready to begin the global bioscan when you're ready." _the voice of Susan sounded from the robotic clone.

"Alright, I'm ready." Mary said as she placed her hands on the keyboard and typed in the starting sequence.

"B_ark, Bark!" _Robot Dukey chimed as he caught the disk with his mouth

"Alright, Fuzzy Buddy! But let's see you catch this one." Johnny reared back and chucked the plastic disk

"Will you two pipe down! Can't you see I'm working on this Photonic Stabilizer?" Eugene complained as his hands were wrist deep in wires

"Sorry, Eugene." Johnny said hurriedly before catching the Frisbee

"It's Bling-Bling Boy!" the genius shouted before returning to his work

Mary and Johnny didn't question Eugene's decision to stay even after most of the lab was fixed. It was quite clear that the boy was going nowhere until his beloved Susan was safe and sound back in her own home. Johnny found it completely stupid since he knew Susan didn't like him, she most likely hated him, but Mary had found it to be rather…sweet. He had plenty he could do with his time and instead chose to stay and help.

"_Scan complete. Results: No sign of Susan or Dukey, nor of Wakko, Mittens, or Brain-Freezer." _The robot twin announced

Mary groaned in frustration for the tenth time in a row. It seemed that no matter how they tried, they simply couldn't get a lock on Wakko's location. The bioscan's results blared for the possibly eleventh time before she flicked to another screen, a series of numbers and equations standing dominantly still.

The equation was Susan's and Mary's assignment for Advance Placement Geometry and had been left sitting for days until now. Mary didn't even look up at the equation before a flurry of commands flooded the screen and the answers appeared in rapid succession. It was only when she had finished that she noticed that Eugene was staring at her.

"Wow." was the only word he said as rouge flooded his cheeks

Mary imitated the action as well, looking at the boy's repair to her Photonic Stabilizer. A moment later, they broke eye contact and returned to work. This didn't stop Eugene from glancing the occasional look at her.

Biohazard.

Susan stretched her legs as she awoke from REM sleep. A solid grip reminded her of the notepad in her hand and she smiled happily at it. The equations were brilliant and the work she put into them was brilliant as well. Sighing contently, she nearly doubled onto the floor as she heard a knock. Stashing the notepad, she had just enough time to recover before Wakko marched in.

"Knock, knock. You decent?" the man asked in a joking manner.

Susan's glare and blush told him that she didn't particularly care for it "What, Wakko?"

"Sheesh. With that attitude, I don't think you deserve my present." Wakko said with a pout and about faced to leave.

"Present?" Susan's tone miraculously changed into curiosity

"Yeah, a special one." Wakko smiled before turning away "But if you don't want it-"

"I never said that!" Susan replied much too quickly. Wakko smiled as the girl tried to covered her mouth and her embarrassment.

"Well, what're you waiting? Let's see this so called present." Susan demanded as she slipped on her lab coat.

Wakko smiled broadly and motioned for her to follow. They went down several corridors and winding turns before they emerged at their final destination: a cafeteria. At least, it resembled one. There was at least five different sets of tables all with two seats to each. There was soft mood lighting and white sheets with generous spread of food on each. Susan gave a question look to the man before he smiled and nodded.

It had taken some doing, but Louis finally managed to negotiate Dukey's extended freedom with him. Sure, he was extremely furious when the teen came back with Dukey completely intact and near stark raving made at the mention of his deal. His snarling bloodlust had reared its head and Dukey instinctively cowered behind his master. Luckily, the boy genius's offer was fair enough that Mittens agreed, if rather reluctantly.

Dukey was just waking up from the first good night's sleep he'd had in the last few days when Louis came scrolling in.

"Come on, Duke Meister, I've got a surprise for you." the teen said in a knowing tone

"Really? What is it? Is it coffee? Or steak? Or Coffee Steak?" the dog's tail went into hyper drive at the prospect of combining his two favorite foods.

"You'll see." Louis said with a smile.

The assistance put on his jacket before following his master down several turns and corridors until they arrived at a cafeteria. Suddenly, his ears perked and his eyes darted. He smelt something, or rather someone, familiar. The moment he reached the entrance, he caught site of her bright red hair and exclaimed.

"SUSAN!"

"DUKEY!"

Susan hesitated for a moment as she watched the dog rush towards her and scoop her into a hug. She squeezed his soft, taut fur, breathed deep his musky scent, and felt his excited heart pumping through his chest. She hadn't seen a familiar face in a week and thus could not stop the rush of tears and emotions from rushing from her.

Dukey smiled contently as Susan tightened her grip on his torso, drowning her tears into his soft coat. He had admitted they weren't very close, but this moment was one were such things were forgotten and all that mattered was comforting each other.

Wakko and Louis, looking at the heart warming scene, silently excused themselves so the two could continue in private.

**Author's Notes**: Whew! That was a long one. I know, I know, a lot of screen time for Dukey and Susan and little for Johnny and Mary, but the next chapter willl remedy that. As you can see, we have several things at work here: Louis is showing a friendly side to Dukey, Mittens is pretty much abusing his servant, Susan's getting better at putting up with Wakko, and Eugene and Mary seem to be showing some chemistry. How will all this work out in the future? Tune in to find out! TTFN!


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes**: If you're one of the few people who favorited this story and are now reading it after almost a complete year of neglect, than I thank you. I wouldn't have made this chapter had it not been from the encouragment of one said fan and so, I give you chapter 4 of EP. Oh, there's also an announcement at the bottom.

Chapter 4

Unexpected Ventures

_Melodious tweets, fresh scented dew, and brilliant cascades of lights. And the none-too-subtle sound of the latest explosion. Johnny's blue eyes cracked open slowly and was graced with a slobbery tongue across his visage. _

Definitely morning. _Johnny though as he swatted away his fuzzy buddy. Hopping out of his sheets, he soared through the air until he came back to earth inexplicably clothed in his usual attire. Not bothering to waste his arguably slow wit on such frivolous things he opted to race Dukey downstairs. Clearing the two flights in a single bound, they burst through the doors._

"_Ah, sweet weekend Summer time! So what should we do first: extreme roof surfing, skateboarding off the Library into the lake, or back-flipping off Death Mountain?" the boy rambled, rubbing his hands together eagerly as he came upon more and more outrageous stunts with which to spend the day. _

"_How about getting blasted and ceasing to exist!?" a voice boomed behind him_

"_Nah, too boring." he replied before turning to come face-to-face with barrels of several laser cannons. _

_Wielding each was the three members of the Evil Johnny Stopping Force Five, all wearing equally manic expressions. Johnny dodged the collective fire and landed; in his hands was now an incredibly and destructive looking bazooka with five barrels and twin bulbous containers on either side. The villains all looked at their weapons and then the massively superior version the young teen was totting. And when they saw his finger jab at the trigger, they did what came naturally._

_They fled in every which direction as a blast of ionized light, thick, nasty looking liquid, and then a multitude of missiles came raining down upon the very position they once stood. Wacko escaped the blast and took aim, sights aimed for the flame-haired boy and scratched the trigger. A shot of pressurized liquid stopped him cold and sent him sprawling across the pavement. _

"_Take that, you hack!" Susan screamed from the rooftop_

_Mittens glanced at his fallen ally before resuming his assault on the accursed mutt. The canine weaved through the fire and dashed at the feline, proceeding to unleash a bevy of Kung-Fu skills. The cat was lost in a torrent of punches and kicks before finally flying into a tree. The last of the trio looked on in shock and blinked, his weapon falling apart in his hands. He held up his hands in surrender..._

_...And promptly received a blast to the face. Johnny hoisted the weapon onto his shoulders, beaming with pride as took in his victory. A moment later he was washed in the embrace of his family; all offering words of praise and admiration. A giant cake suddenly appeared and dropped from the sky, covering the boy and his companions in icing and moist confection goodness._

"_This is the best day ever!" Johnny exclaimed before sucking his hand of icing._

* * *

><p>The morning air swept into the room with an unexpected surge of strength, swiping at the resting boy's face. Johnny drowsily opened his eyes and hazily removed his hand from his mouth. Rubbing his head, he surveyed his room to take mental inventory. It was something he did help wake himself up in the morning and made finding things easier when he fully woke up.<p>

Bat? Check.

Box of video games? Check-a-roo.

Sock that's been needing a wash for going on three months? Double Check.

Then he came upon the sleeping mass at the foot of his bed. It looked so very much indeed like his fuzzy buddy: soft, slightly gnarled fur, long face, and fluffy golden brown tail. He seemed so close; all he needed was to reach out and he'd be able to run his hands through the dog's fur once more and then he'd wake up and they'd go off and have some wild adventure.

But it wasn't Dukey.

The fur wasn't real; it was high grade imitation fibers. The face was reinforced titanium alloy just like the rest of it. And the tail was powered by spring loaded motors with shock absorbers. Not to mention there was a large metal panel sticking from the back, the checkered surface taking in the energy from the light that seeped into the room. A solar panel conserved on energy and was more efficient than electricity as Mary had told him. The panel suddenly slammed down and the automaton rose. It turned it's optics turned the boy in front of it and gave off a lifeless bark before smiling and playfully wagging its tail.

It'd been fun having it around at first; having someone to play fetch with was fun and made things simplier to explain than when he playing by now, the sight of it made him simultaneously mad and depressed. This thing was a mockery; an insult to the memory of his prized pooch who was most likely in all kinds of pain, especially if that twisted cat Mittens got a hold of him. And thinking of such things made him depressed because he knew that they still hadn't managed to find them yet. Eugene had been working non-stop for nearly a week and still hadn't gotten even an educated guess as to where they might possible be by chance.

Mary had classes in the afternoons and occasional evenings and thus was unable to assist the boy. She had her hands full keeping her sister's substitute in line. Programing personality was Susan expertise not hers. As a result, there were numerous glitches she had to tend to at random, and easily the most inopportune moments, something that left her exhausted after dealing with so many at a time.

"Johnny! Are you ready? The bus leaves in five minutes!" his mother's voice ranged from downstairs

The boy snapped from his thoughts. He'd almost forgotten it was a school day. He vaulted from his bed to the floor, plucking his clothes from their respective piles and hurriedly slipping them on. Halfway through putting on his cargoes, he stole a glance at his calender. Thursday, two more days until the weekend. Time he'd be able to send helping look for his family. He laced up his shoes, grabbed his backpack and burst through the door. He bypassed the kitchen, in no mood to eat at the moment, and exited the house before catching the bus.

Junction Ahead.

Mary tapped her pencil on her cranium, attempting to urge it to think harder. Ever since her twin's kidnapping, she'd been having trouble focusing on anything that didn't pertain to this in some way, shape, or form. Which was why she was having trouble with the current problem presented to her. It seemed like something she should be able to breeze through: Name the three different Domains and their differences. Then choose an example from each and briefly describe why they should be placed in such a category. Like she said: easy. But the whole Susan/Dukey situation had completely thrown her off her game recently-

"Finished."

Mary swiveled her head and came to see the replica of her sister holding a paper aloft and staring expressionlessly at the professor. The aged, thin man adjusted his glasses and approached the red-haired contraption look-alike. Taking it in his metal claw, he scanned quickly over the page before nodding and returning to his desk and his issue of Science Weekly.

Mary shot the robot a look. The gesture was lost on the machine, which had already gone into Idle Mode. Having a machine best her at a test brought her no small degree irritation; she was full blown mad. She returned to her paper and scribbled answer feverishly, making sure to curse the despicable contraption a hundred times over. She was half way through the final answer when a trio of hands shot up.

"We're done, Professor." A blonde haired boy with braces announced, smirking smugly in Mary's direction.

The genius girl broke her pencil as she snapped it in fury, the two halves falling to table. Adding the blonde geek to her growing list of cursed individuals, she retrieved the lead bit and continued to write.

"Like, over and done with." A girl with rich brown hair and a sleek blue dress that stopped just short enough to be decent but still arouse the male interest.

Mary groaned and wrote faster.

"Totally done over here." A teen with tan skin, blonde hair and goatee and a green collared shirt declared

"I've been waiting for five minutes." The latest voice chimed from a girl with glasses and a dress with golden neck collar and purple sleeves.

Mary banged her head against the oak table and slowly raised her own paper. She remained in this position until the bell rung signaling the end of the last class of the day. Praising all two hundred and eighty-six deities she could name off the top of her head, she grabbed her 'twin' and headed out the door.

Caution Sign.

School dragged on even longer than usual since he no longer had his best friend waiting for him when he escaped the brick and mortar prison of useless information. As if he'd ever need to know when Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. Drumming his fingers absent-mindlessly on his wooden desk, he glanced at the clock.

2:56

So close and yet so far. If he had the means, he would've blown the mockingly slow time keeper to dust with some invention from the girls' lab. But he didn't so he'd simply have to make due with waiting. Even then, he found his mind drifting back to Dukey. Thinking of all the times they'd handed the burgundy cat his rear, he could only guess about what he'd do to even the score. Images of his friend being ducked in chilling ice water, zapped at for target practice, or made into a mindless puppet via brain scrambling device popped into his thoughts like uninvited guests. And like all unwanted guests, they were immediately cast out with extreme prejudice.

The flame headed boy dug his head into his history, an event that caused raised eyebrows all around him. His eyes ran over word after word, attempting to past time that way, but each time he encountered a word that reminded him of what could possibly be happening to his favorite canine.

Imprisonment. Shunning. Mind-Altering. Mistreatment. Depravity. Pain. _Torture._

Johnny's head shot up in an instant and he turned to face the clock just as the bell rung. He set a new record for fastest sprint on his way out. Jetting out the doors, he continued his pace until he came to an abrupt stop in front of the tree just three blocks from his house. He bend down to grip his knees, taking in gulpfuls of precious oxygen. He'd not even noticed how fast he'd been running when he left, his mind was still in turmoil. The possible things that could be happening to his friend scared him beyond reason and he wanted to get away from such thoughts. Running had been the first thing that came to mind. Sighing to resume some semblance of calm, he stepped forward and ate cement.

"Oops, sorry Test. Didn't see ya there." Bumper heckled, the larger boy looking down condescendingly at the target of his bullying.

Johnny slowly got to his feet, saying nothing. He didn't have a witty retort at the ready or a counter action. He was still upset over Dukey and wanted nothing to do with the orange buzz cut ruffian. He turned his head and gave him a look that expressed his irritation before resuming his walk. Bumper didn't like being ignored so he grabbed and pushed Johnny forward, causing him to stumble. He remained silent.

"What's the matter with you, Test?" Bumper asked curiously "And where's that mutt of yours?"

His response was a flinch before the boy decided to move on. Seeing that he managed to get some sort of action out the boy that way, he smirked deviously and spoke again.

"Did he finally wise up and run away or did you just give him away?" he chuckled a bit at the end, adding insult to injury.

Johnny stiffened and froze in place. All day he'd done nothing but worry about how his beloved friend was doing and here Bumper had the audacity, the gull to accuse him of something like that? All his sorrow over his dog's kidnapping turned to rage, rage that his fingers curled tightly around and squeezed until it hurt. He then swiftly turned and landed a solid right hook into his face, sending the larger boy to the ground.

Bumper looked up, stunned at what had just occurred. He had picked on Test numerous times and every time he retaliated it had been in the form of a snappy comeback or some form of counter action. But never had he'd actually hit him. For all his bark, the flame-hair youth had little strength in those scrawny arms of his, definitely not enough to hurt him or cause anything more than a brief jolt. He'd only fell because he'd been so shocked but now that the shock had worn off, so had his playful attitude.

Johnny stood his ground, even as the larger boy rose and saw that the normal sneer was gone from his face and in its place was a frown and narrowed eyes. It took every ounce of his willpower not to run on the spot. When he lowered his hand at him, he flinched and closed his eyes, awaiting whatever punishment that was coming his way.

"That punch was pulling to the left."

"...Say wha?" Well that certainly caught him off guard.

"Your punch. It's leaning to the left." he reached and grabbed his smaller wrist and proceeded to walk in the direction opposite of his destination "Com' on."

"Where are we goin'?" Johnny asked, writhing in the bully's superior grip.

"My house. Duh."

Upcoming Intersection.

"You're kidding?!" Dukey cried out between fits of hysterical laughter

"Yeah and then I had to break out the hedge clippers and those snapped in two! That's when I took a chainsaw to it..." Susan herself was finding it difficult to explain her story without breaking down as well.

After they're reunion, they had caught up on the ends and out of their currently insane lives as well as what their respective wardens. She also, begrudgingly, thanked Wacko for the chance to talk to someone she was familiar to and they're once-a-day meetings were something she looked forward to greatly. Ideas about escape had been tossed around but neither believed that they were currently in any position to attempt such a venture. So they're most immediate concern had become making sure that they didn't do anything that might tamper with their captors' suspicion.

Finally, they managed to outcome they fit long enough to calm down. Wiping a tear from his eyes, the dog took a long, slow slurp from his coffee mug. Smooth cinnamon with a hint of cream and dash of flavor essence of bacon. He set the mug down with a satisfied smirk , wondering just how the brunette teen managed to get such flavor in such a small vessel.

Susan smiled as well, drinking a cup of Wacko's newest concoction 'Sippin' Syrup Sunshine' that was designed to boost natural noradrenaline and adrenaline while recharging the cells in the brain and allowing one to stay awake while also getting the rest they needed to function. She was certain that if this ever hit the shelves, people would tear each apart for so much as a sip.

She sat the cup down, however, when she noticed a bandage on Dukey's right forearm.

"Let me guess," getting his attention "Mittens?"

Dukey sighed and returned his cup to the table top. Even with the agreement Louis had brokered with the feline, he still had to return to his service whenever he was needed. When he hadn't been called for two days, he'd thought the cat had lost interest in him; of course he should have seen the ignorance in such thinking. Halfway through the third, the tyrannical maniac had barged in and demanded his assistance. When he returned, he had several new scratches and even a bite mark or two.

Mittens had definitely not lost interest in him. If anything, he was even more interested in him now. He'd leave him alone just long enough for him to believe himself safe before he brutally shattered that way of thinking and completely started anew. It was his way of punishing the vile mutt and breaking his will bit by bit. And Susan had to literally be restrained whenever the cat so much as looked in her direction. Not that he could blame her.

He lifted the injured limb and gave it a poke, cringing slightly "I knocked over a plant and he clawed me." he chuckled lightly "He was actually aiming for my face, but I managed to block in time. Canine instincts and all that."

Susan didn't find it funny "If I ever get my hands on that worthless excuse of genetic genius, I'll skin him and use what's left as raw materials for my drones bio-fuel."

Dukey smiled despite himself. Ever since they came here, Susan had become increasingly protective of him. He never truly would've called themselves friends before hand, but hey, spend enough time with something and you get attached to it. There was suddenly a loud blare and he turned to see Louis leaning against the wall and tapping his watch. Giving the red head girl a quick hug, he followed after his partner and with an 'a-hem', she reluctantly did the same.

Yield.

Johnny had to say he was genuinely surprised. From his previous visit to Bumper's abode, he had though the inside would look as run down as the outside had appeared to be. The neatly painted walls, decorative plates, and masterful woven rugs had proven him wrong, however. Everything had, really, except Boomer's room.

Clothes were hung off any spare hook, toys were tossed about, and unfinished homework assignments lay sprawled across the floor and long forgotten. In a corner of the room was a glass tank, a green lizard basking in the warmth of its heat lamp. Johnny recoiled at the sight of the creature, images of his last encounter with the creature sending willies up his spine. Scanning the room, he quickly seized a spot on the bed that wasn't completely covered in grime and deposited himself. His host rummaged through a pile, flinging various items across the room.

"Um, Bumper?" Johnny asked as he avoided a stray sock "Not that I don't like _not _getting beat up whenever I'm around you, but why did you bring me to your house?"

He didn't answer, only continuing to rummage through his belongings before finally emerging with a triumphant grin. Once again he confiscated his hands and proceeded to slip something unto them. When Johnny pulled them away, he saw that he was now wearing black fingerless gloves. They were a bit loose, but they wouldn't fall off and they have plenty of room to move about in.

"Here." Johnny rotated his head and watched as a punching bag appeared from seemingly nowhere "Hit it."

Johnny stared blankly ahead, blinking his eyes before continuing to stare. After a moment, he complied and reared back and hurled his fist into the bag.

"Ow! What's this thing made of, concrete!?" Johnny asked as he gripped his hand

"Sand actually." Bumper replied casually "Now hit it again. That last hit was pathetic."

"Oh, yeah? How about this?" he swung, putting whole body into the hit

"...Slightly less pathetic."

Stop Sign ahead.

Mary drug herself into house and closed the door with what little strength she had left. The Susan Bot had malfunctioned nearly five times during school and another two on the way home. She had dutifully decided that once she managed to crawl up the steps, she look through her sister's notes and make sure to fix every little thing that could possible could or would go wrong with it. She glanced into the kitchen and saw that the aroma of fermenting meat and the silhouette of her father were absent. She sighed and started her trek up the stairs.

After what had passed as the most exhausting, pain-riddled climb up the tortuously bare oak steps, she hauled her form over the top and deposited herself on the mercifully carpeted floor. Her vision was hazy, her sight slipping in out as she quickly surrendered to her tired body's demands for rest. It wouldn't be the strangest place she'd fallen asleep in.

BOOM! Mary abruptly sat up and rose to her feet. That was a chemical explosion that was coming from her room. True, it had been reinforced with everything their monthly funding from the institute would allow, but that didn't mean it could defend against everything and dealing things of chemical nature always made things a matter of urgency. She rocketed through the door and came upon a most peculiar sight.

Eugene was crouch over the ashes of what use to be Susan's bed, face blackened with soot and other undesirable muck. His hair was frozen in a blown back position and his outfit was now riddled with holes of all kinds and marred beyond repair. His eyes were pinpricks, still fixated on the spot where his beloved had rested. Then, by the laws of comedic physics, he fell over with a loud and painful thud. Mary didn't know whether to burst into hysterical laughter or groan at the complete absurdity of the situation.

She knew that her sister had treated the boy like a phobia and had taken precautions to avoid him at all costs. One such precaution was to install a bio-bomb into her bed that released acidic agents to destroy her bed as Eugene had touched it and therefore it must be burned and to also send a contained burst of explosives at the directions her intruder had came from. Mary had called it overkill, since Johnny would never allow him more than two feet near her unless absolutely necessary. Susan had said that it was better safe than sorry.

As she watched the smothering genius on the floor, she decided that the situation called from a groan and walked over to him. Reaching into her pocket, she produced a large orb filled with a blue liquid with an extendable pipe protruding from the side. Pressing one of the many buttons, the charred Eugene was promptly doused with a jet of high pressurized water, cleaning him off and spending him into a scramble.

"Eugene, why were you in our room?" Mary asked "Don't tell me you were trying to sniff Susan stuff or something."

"No! For your information, I was searching for some fresh genetic material so we could improve the efficiency of the bio-scan! I'm in love with your sister but even I can see the importance of this situation!" he snapped back at her, folding his arms

Mary stared at him briefly and tapped a finger to her mouth. A fresher DNA sample would give them a more accurate search seeing as how the samples they had were from the newly finished lab and most likily were contaminated with who knows what while a sample from their room would be far more sterile.

"That's...actually pretty good thinking. Good thinking, Eugene." Mary said with a smile

She was expecting the usual 'It's Bling-Bling Boy!', but was surprised when he said nothing at all. Instead he looked at her like she told him the sky was raining cookies and chocolate milk. He shook his head and quickly left the room, Mary following behind shortly before halting as she saw Johnny hauling himself up the stairs, almost as tired as she was.

"Where have you been?"

"Boxing practice." Johnny responded before trudging to his room and shutting the door tight.

Mary gave a perplexed look before shrugging and continuing on to the lab. The duo worked well into the night, scanning around the globe only to come up empty handed every time. Eugene had insisted the failures had been due to his own miscalculations, but Mary knew better. Wacko was a genius. One of the most brilliant minds she'd ever encountered in all her thirteen years. If he wasn't certifiably insane and hellbent on destroying her family, she might actually admire him. But he and so she couldn't.

The moon had risen well past its course before the two retired to the bunk-beds stationed in the lab. As she lied in the bed and attempted to find sleep, her mind kept drifting back to the mumbling voice below her. Eugene had been acting strangely, even for him, and she had decided that figuring out the reason would be more than enough to help keep her mind off her sister. And what he'd said in her bedroom had confused her.

_'That's the first time anyone's complimented me.'_

**Author's Notes: **Sorry if the chapter's flow was a little choppy, I had real block with this chapter for some reason. But moving on, I've decided to wrap this story up in about...14 to 15 chapters. That means that this adventures going into overdrive soon, mostly because I wants to finish before school starts again so except some rapid updates over the few days. Once this story's done, I get to move on to another to fill up the Johnny Test files. TTFN!


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes: **This chapter was a dozy, mostly because it was an action chapter. School starts tomorrow for me and I'll have less time to write, but expect another update soon. Anyway, here's Chapter 5.

Entirely Probable

Chapter 5: Realistic Applications

John Bardeen, a physicist, once said that science is a collaborative effort. Susan was sure that if he had been kidnapped, held hostage, and forced to work with Wacko, he'd feel the same way too. Which was to say that she wanted to toss him off a cliff into a particle accelerator.

Currently, she was busying herself by recalibrating the fusion drive of the Robo-Walker 3000 while drawing up the blueprints for her own android. Wacko had gave her permission to do so and he gave her access to tools and parts she was pretty sure were illegal in most parts of the United States. With all this plus the nearing approach of an upgraded living space, one would think the girl would be happy, or at the very least satisfied.

And she would've been if Wacko didn't demand that she do inventory and maintenance on all two hundred of his Defense Driods which included not only his Robo-Walkers, but also his eight armed, laser shooting Omni-Bots, self-detonating Decoys, and, her favorite, the obscenely large and bulky Mega Arsenal Walker, or M.A.W. Then there were the monition sensors that needed to be re calibrated, laser grids to be aligned, and a complete sweep of the entire system network until she could finally claim her rewards.

She stole a glimpse at her watch she fashioned from spare parts of hardware, giving it the appearance of something out of her reckless brother's overly colorful comics. The girl was quite proud of it, but had no expression that showed such a thing. Because her clock flash a number that was five hours later than she expected.

Nearly eight hours of this work and she was nowhere near even close to being finished. She looked down the long line of mechanized machines and was reminded of the gaping maw of a black hole. Even the room was projecting the overwhelmingly crushing forces that accommodated such an anomaly, making her even more aware of her own labored breathing. She decided that when she finally finished, she throttle the neon blue haired man. After she received her reward of course.

Danger Ahead.

A spark flared as it met steel, the metal glowing hot as it was melded together with the copper fibers. A variety of wires, microchips, and conductive fibers. Two wires touched and sparked before winding around each other fully. Delicate finger slid the open case shut, running themselves over the cool metal surface. The creator stood back and beheld their creation.

A small, rectangular case was attached to a white head band with long cables flowing to and from another set of smaller cases on either side near the back of the head. The small bulbs lit up periodically before flashing green, signaling that the device had become adequately charged. Sweat was whipped from a moist forehead, pushing crimson bangs away to prevent further obstruction.

Mary had never felt more satisfied with something she'd made with her own hands.

Ever since she had attended the seminar on augmented brain activity, she'd been obsessively working on the idea. She knew she had other things, more important thing to do, but she simply couldn't help it. The muse had taken her and she had to give her idea cohesive, physical form. It'd been like this ever since she was a barely out of preschool and was making automatic paste tasters and edible finger paint.

And she needed this. Working on the headband had released pint up stress that had been building ever since her sister's abduction. She had felt that as if she had just woken up from a restful sleep and was stretching her muscles after hours of disuse. Her mind no longer raced with dangerous scenarios, unwanted hazardous what-ifs and painful guilt. All she felt was a sense of calm and lightness. Which had made her smile for the first time in over a week.

She picked her invention up, examining it from various angles before putting it back down. Despite having created the thing, she still hadn't tested it as of yet. Johnny, her and her twin's primary choose had Boxing practice with Boomer this afternoon, and Lolo, her second choice had been loaned out to help pay for more funding for the lab to help buy newer and better GSP Locator software. Even Eugene, who had been at her beck and call for the time he had spent repairing the lab, was busy suffering the wrath of his mother. Rushing over to their aid without telling her probably had _something _to do with it.

The last available person was obvious: herself. And Mary was more than a bit hesitant about using an untested piece of equipment on herself and, more importantly, _by _herself with no one to help or save her should it go wrong. The Test family Track Record had pages of evidence that pointed towards towards such an outcome. Incidents such as Johnny Long Legs and The DNA Transmogrifier only made her fear more concrete and rationale.

Still, it would have to be put to work sooner or later. She wasn't about to let her work of intellectual greatness gather dust with failed inventions. So, pocketing her device, she swirled back towards the door and marched out the door. A quick race downstairs was punctuated by a loud GROWL! Placing a hand on her stomach, she decided that lunch was definitely in order. Once in the kitchen, she set to work finding herself a meal.

She poked through the cabinets, her eyes scanning over the various materials before foregoing them. Father's Day had been a wake-up call for her and all of the members of the Test house. She had been watching recordings of old cooking shows and been practicing her skills with the spatula. Were her skills better for it: no doubt. Could she trust herself to crank out something edible: pretty sure. But her stomach demanded something now, so Susan continued her search. Finally, after tip-toeing to peek at the top-most shelf, she pulled out a Toaster Tasty. Peeling back the reflective wrapper, she proceeded to munch a bit in her mouth.

BEEP! BEEP!

Mary was in the middle of chewing another bite of strawberry filled goodness but halted as her watch blared softly. Giving the device a questioning look, he pressed one of the numerous buttons before a holographic display flashed before her.

"SECURITY ALERT?" Mary read the flashing letters as another series of messages flashed before her to make themselves known "What? But there having been any trips in the exterior sensors-"

SHOOM! Mary dropped her unfinished lunch from her hands and mouth as a feeling of distortion overtook her. For a few brief seconds, she felt her body become statue-like, frozen like an artist's rendering before feeling was just as sudden rushed back into her body. Then she heard the doorbell ring.

Springing to her feet, she raced to the door and swung it open. Immediately before her stood a man, somewhere in his mid-thirties, wearing an all gray suit with a lighter tone shirt. His hair was cut in the standard military buzz-cut and was colored a dirty blonde. He also wore shades, wrap-around in place of the standard, and he was fiddling with his cuff. When he finally noticed the red-head genius, he blushed slightly and smiled.

"Sorry about that." he said with a nervous laugh "Dang thing's been acting up all week."

"Um, and you would be..." Mary allowed herself to trial off, hinting for the man to answer

"Oh! Right." he laughed nervously again before clearing his throat and proceeding "My real name is confidential but you can call me Mr. Inert. And these boy scouts are the N-Men."

"Riiiiigghhtt..." N-Men? Mr. Inert? This was sounding suspiciously like something out of a comic book. She directed her attention to the group of five men behind Mr. Inert. All of them were dressed in black vests with white sleeves and pants and a mask that covered the top half of their face. They all wore standard issue shades, although theirs were tinted gray. The attire and posture all reminded her of a certain monochromatic duo.

"You wouldn't happen to work with two guys named Mr. Black and Mr. White?" Mary questioned

She was completely taken aback by the uproarious laughter that overtook the man, who fell to the ground, clutching his stomach. The men behind him remained composed but let slip a smirk and a low chuckle. "Those two Black-Ops rejects?! I wouldn't be caught _dead _with that duo of idiots! I mean, they work at Area 51.2. Everyone in the _real _Secret Service knows that's the place were screw-ups, losers, and complete dimwits end up."

"Hey, they've done a pretty good job protecting Porkbelly...mostly." Mary happened to like the pair. Heck, they were so cool around each other and visited enough that they might as well been their friends.

"Oh, really?" a sly smiled spread across his mouth "Because from these records, it seems like every time something goes wrong with this town, _your _family is the one to fix these little messes. Mr. Dumb and Mr. Dumber just do whatever you say because your ideas are better than theirs. You: a fifteen year old girl, her twin, and their thirteen year old brother have better ideas on how to stop mayhem than two full-grown and government sanctioned agents."

Mary had no rebuttal for his argument, mostly because it was true.

"That's what I thought. Now, back to business." he cleared his throat once more to get her attention "We're here to take you and your sister to a secure Think Tank in an classified location for an undisclosed amount of time. There, you'll use your genius to help build working prototypes for new alternatives fuel sources. We've seen your work and are sure that in a professional and proper environment, you'll be able to-"

"Yeah, that's great and all, but first: Susan's off at a convention with the students from the Porkbelly Institute. Second: I'm going nowhere unless my mom and dad give an okay." Mary ticked off both points on her fingers.

"No problem. We'll picked up your sister and drop her off at the nerd fest and while they're doing that, we'll wipe out your family's memories and remove any and all traces of your existence so they won't even remember having daughters that way they won't miss you. Now just step in the van and, if your a good girl and show us some of your inventions, we'll stop for ice cream." The blond agent smiled and gestured to the vehicle, standard issue black with all the concealed trimmings.

A jet of ionized water crystals rushed past him and struck the van, robbing it of its kinetic energy as a thick sheet of ice encased it in a slippery and glossy cocoon. Smoke hissed from the barrel of Susan Bling-Bling Blaster, which was now aimed firmly at Mr. Inert.

"You want me, Agent Man?" she narrowed her eyes and struck the most expert stance she could think of with her pistol weapon "Come get me."

The man smiled, adjusting his wrap-around glasses "Sweetie, I don't think you know who you're dealing with."

Dead End.

Susan didn't like surprises. Surprises were unknown variables that ruined otherwise perfectly executed experiments. They were chaotic and dangerous and, worse of all, utterly annoying. She was in the middle of running routine check-ups on the mechanized soldiers when she suddenly felt a chill rush through her body and was followed quickly by a laser blast that missed her by a hair, singing the ends of her straightened hair.

She was off running in that instant, her shoe's loud clamoring drowned out by the piercing echoes of firing triggers and violent explosions. Logic dictated that she turn around to face her attacker as to better understand what she was up against. Common Sense told her that she needed to get to the weapons cache fast before a stray blast roasts her like a thanksgiving turkey. Hopping over the fallen arm of a Robo-Walker, she dove forward and cleared the distance between her and metal storage locker.

Without hesitation, she pounded in the code sequence and listened to the hiss that accompanied the door opening. The array of weaponry presented itself before the genius; ignoring the larger and more absurd-looking artillery, her fingers wrapped themselves around a reasonably sized rifle with blue, white, and purple color scheme. Hoisting it up, she quickly took aim and let loose a kinetic blast that nearly tore her soldier apart,

A pain filled grunt and solid thud of something solid filled her ears and only then did she dare a look over her cover. A smoking hole rose from the black vest, exposing a burnt yet intact white long sleeved shirt beneath. A mask obscured the top of his face while gray tinted glasses hid their eyes. Susan raised a brow and ducked back under cover as another beam raced past. Something about these goons seemed to remind her of a certain pair of agents.

The girl stole another peek over her cover.

There were nine of them and one of her. She was outnumbered and outgunned by a large margin and her chances of winning were looking somewhere between slim to never going happen. Her attention snapped when she felt a coldness on her palm and she looked down, the sight of a cable leading to the master control unit piquing her interest.

Susan smiled, a devious glint refracting off her glasses.

Hairpin Turn.

The area around the secluded lair of the Evil Johnny Stopping Force 3 was coniferous. Tall pines scratched the heavens with their branches and shrubs and boulders dominated the land beneath. Insects blared their calls as nature played gently in tune with it. Anyone with even the most remote respect and appreciation for mother earth would've found the place to be quite peaceful; tranquilly devoid of any evidence of man's interference.

Well, those people never had to deal with being in such a place and getting punch in the face.

Dukey sailed through the landing a good six feet away from his assailant. The punch had hurt quite a bit, he knew he'd be feeling it in the morning, but otherwise it was nothing he couldn't take. Snapping saplings told him to roll and narrowly missed having a heel crash into his muzzle. Springing to his feet, she assumed a combat stance just as the man recovered from his failed attempt.

He was definitely hitting the gym, if his massive arms and chest were any indication. Muscle definition showed in spite of the gray suit and his gazing was piercing even though it was impossible to tell beneath the gray shades. His hair was his most distinctive feature; Dukey couldn't remember the last time he'd since a person with platinum follicles. His appraisal of the man was cut short by a shot to his side and he dodged and countered.

For minutes, they were flurry of limps. Dodge, Strike, Dodge, Duck, Uppercut, Backpedal, Leg sweep, Side kick, Downward chop, Side step, Counter, Parry went the battle as the two equally skilled warriors danced a dance of ferocity and precision. They both stuck and grunted as the attack hit pay dirt. Clutching his aching side, he looked up and allowed himself a smirk at the sight of the man's injured shoulder.

"You're pretty good." the man;s tone was nothing but professional "Mind telling me what dojo you studied under? I'd be interested in learning what kind of school enrolls dogs."

"I'm not a dog; I'm a kid with a rare hair disorder. And I never stepped into a dojo, it all comes naturally." Dukey said as he massaged relief into his sting side.

"Being a natural at fighting is interesting, but you must think I'm an idiot if you think I belief your story for a second." He cut Dukey off from speaking as he further elaborated "We have records of all cases of extreme hair growth and even then the person looked human. You've got a muzzle, fully formed canine, and tail. You must be dealing with some complete morons if you're able to get by on such a flimsy disguise."

"Well, Porkbelly isn't exactly the center of Renaissance." Dukey smiled wryly "You'd be surprised how many people believe it, Mr..?"

"Achromatic. Mr. Achromatic."

The mixed breed raised a brow "Achromatic? As in 'without color'? Gotta say it suits your personality."

The man said nothing, but jumped forward, lashing out with a roundhouse kick. The dog ducked and hopped over a leg sweep. He brought his right paw into an uppercut, but it missed and the momentum unbalanced him enough for the man to hoist him into the air by the collar of his jacket and toss him a good four meters into a tree. He grimaced as he made impact but did little else. Louis had been working in weaponry lately and had decided that their jacket could use some carbon fiber reinforcement. Overkill was what he thought of the precaution at the time, but now he was thanking of ways to repay the teen for having such foresight.

He rolled and flipped backwards to his feet and ran as fast as he could. He knew exactly where he was going and knew he was getting close as the tree thinned and the path before him became sparely filled plant life. He gave a triumphant smirk and jumped off the cliff without delay. At any other time, such an action would've been accused of madness or very manic depression. He, especially, would've declared such a stunt completely insane. But that was before he had his new wrist bling.

Five hours worth of tutorials had familiarized him with the smooth, white and icy blue device enough to activate it without the need for much searching. Their was a slight hum and a feeling that felt a little too much like sinking overcame him before he proceeded to defy nature, physics, and a few religious nut-jobs as he deftly landed and stood on water. Not bothering to hid his utterly uninhibited excitement, he quickly jogged back a few steps, ripples spanning out with each bound. The look, or what appeared to be look, on Mr, Achromatic's face caused him grin broadly, his whole body language translating victory.

"...I take it that device allows who to adjust surface tension?" His animal senses were the only thing that allowed him to pick up the slightest hint of curiously in the otherwise un-telling voice.

"Yeah, it increases the surface area generated by whatever's under its field of influence and also creates a bit of adhesion between water molecules and the molecules of whatever's trying to stick to it. It's called The Ninja." Dukey felt quite confident, outwitting the man and getting to field test his friend's newest creation.

The man grunted something before walking off the edge himself. The dog's mouth drop, watching as the man fell straight at the without changing his posture in the slightest, further stunning him as he stopped instantly on top of the water. He took a step back in shock and adjusted himself, preparing to himself for whatever the man was about to do.

"I prefer my Anti-Gravity/Reflector Augments. A.G.R.A for short." he seemed to be reviling in the dog's stupefied expression "It generates a vary degree of gravitational interference without hindering mobility."

To demonstrate his point, he dashed forward and jabbed, causing Dukey to duck and slid backwards. He yelped as his foot sank into the water, instantly pulling it out again and planting it gently on the surface.

"You, on the other hand, have to remain balanced and coordinated in order stay above water. If you're unbalanced for even a second..." he didn't finish. He didn't need to, the question pretty much answered itself "Relying on such new and unstable tech is stupid and highly unrecommended. This is the its first time being tested in the field, am I right?"

Dukey growled threateningly. This guys all-it-all attitude was really starting to get on his nerves. Where did he get off calling Louis's invention unstable? He was practically calling them junk. And he caught that unsaid warning in his words: Don't trust him. Besides Susan, the ice-themed genius was the only other person in this prison he trusted as far as he could throw him. He was a good kid and didn't deserve to be in this situation, even if he did bring it on himself.

Without further provocation, he sent a punch at the man's face. His opponent grabbed it and flowed around it, catching the dog with an palm thrust. The dog reel backwards, feeling his footing give way before he reset himself and blocked a strike at his chest. And the fight resumed, the two nothing but a blur of punches, kicks, and counters.

Dukey felt his respiration kick up as he blocked a flurry of kicks backed by several times the force of gravity. Never, in all his years, had he needed to be perform at high gear for so long. His skills had previously been unmatched and reviled by none and envied by all. But this guy was another thing all together. He was keeping up with him and getting in hits, forcing him to keep increasing his performance until he'd hit his limit.

An overhead strike struck his guard and he felt himself sway and moisture licked at his soles. Another lightning fast strike hit him on the side of his head and he heard the water sallow his legs, his now damp clothes dragging him down. Clinging to the surface with what was left of his upper body, he could only stare up helplessly at the towering form of Mr. Achromatic.

"It seems as if the fight is over." he didn't bother with witty banter like most or even make the obvious drowned cat crack. But after meeting and talking to him, it seemed to fit his personality perfectly.

Maybe it was a good thing he didn't bother with needless chatting otherwise the massive blast of numbing cold would've struck him. As it was, he leaped high and above the attack, landing far away from the half-sinking, half-floating dog and allowing the armored figure to hover slightly atop the water. His hair was chilled blue and spiked to resemble icicles and he currently was aiming his arm mounted cannon at the offending agent. The man arched a brow as he looked into the teen's eyes. If looks could kill, he would've been dead four times over.

"Nobody hurts Duke Meister, if I can help it." Dukey blinked at the sheer iciness of the boy's voice. He never held such a tone, even when he fought Johnny.

"Ah, Louis Caldwell Winters AKA Brain-Freezer." the boy blinked in surprise at the mention of his full name "I must thank you. You saved me the trouble of tracking down after I disposed of you attack dog. The records never mentioned you dabbled in Genetic Engineering. Broadening your horizons?"

The boy smirked, something that people seemed to doing a lot of that day, and assumed a basic fighting stance "You can say that."

From the cannon came a hum before a column of solid, icy light rose from the barrel and formed a long saber, pulsing with energy. His jets rocketed to life and blasted him forward, smoke bellowing behind him as he zoomed in to strike. He seethed in irritation when his blade sliced air and the man landed behind him. Growling, he u-turned and slashed again, resulting in the previous outcome. He kicked up the power of his rockets and sent himself blazing at his target.

Looking on at the scene, Dukey had forgotten that half of himself was submerged in the water. Careful removing him from beneath the surface, he precariously balanced himself on against the water and ran towards the battle raging in front of him.

Louis had given up on any type of fitness he might've been striving for in place of hacking and slashing like a mad man. No matter how fast he moved or how wide he struck, the man avoided the attacks and made him increasingly angered at the man. He raced towards him for what seemed like the umpteenth time when he noticed that he was standing perfectly still. Was he mocking him? Did he believe he didn't even need to move in order to win?

The very notion made his anger flare and his thrusters sent him barreling forward at Mach 5. His target looked at him before casually raising his wrist. From the cuff links on his suit sprang forth a thin barrier of energy, which received the full force of the strike from the teen genius's saber. The weapon jerked back, sparks of energy running up and down the length as the shield retreated back into the cuff link. Seeing an opening, Brain-Freezer swung just as the man brought up his forearm to guard against him.

CRACK! The boy's eye grew wide as he watched the column shatter, leaving faint traces on the raised sleeve as the man glared at him.

"No! Not now!" he screamed as he feverishly tried to reform the phenomenon before the man grabbed him by the collar of his suit

"Ice crystals held together by ionized light particles. It provides stability and quick reformation but becomes brittle and fragile whenever another energy wave is shot into it. Clearly a first attempt and a good one at that, but a first attempt none the less." He reached out and yanked the Chilicino from his forearm, deactivating his armor and rending him helpless.

"You are coming with me. As an Agent of the Federal Division for Paranormal Intelligence Recovery, I hereby place you and your genetic experiment under arrest. You'll have the rights to cooperate to the fullest extent possible or you'll be deemed a threat and thereby, neutralized. Once the full scope of your intelligence is evaluated, you'll be sent to a Think Tank where your talents will be put to good use for the good of the citizens of this country. " he explained

As the two tried to digest this bit of information, an explosion caught their attention.

\/\/\/\/

Mittens dropped another of the monochromatic agents before jumping over a paralyzing blast and delivered the offending culprit a nasty scratch across the face. Once that goon was down, he took a moment to survey the situation.

He didn't know where all these idiots had come from, but there seemed to be a good number of them. The fact that they found their hideout despite the signal jammer he'd installed told him something very important: these guys were good. Sliding his claws back into they're assorted places, he turned his head to see Wacko standing not too far away with an oversized blaster slung over his shoulder.

"Well, isn't this just great? All these guest and I completely forgot the party favors." the man said as he stepped over body of a downed man

"Yeah, and they sure know how to make a mess." Mittens frowned as he looked around the room, his study had been impeccable before those idiots ruined it by turning it into a war zone "Ah, well. Nothing my thrall can't handle."

The blue haired man opened his mouth to reply when an ear-shattering noise caught their attention. A quick look out the window showed them that the large semi-sphere, which housed all of the lair's heavy weaponry and defense systems, was smoking which hinted that it was most likely on fire. Mittens folded his arms and gave his colleague a look.

"Well, it seems like your assistant is enjoying herself." the feline scowled deeply when the man replied with a grin, racing out the door and filling the halls with laser fire as he made his way in her general direction.

\/\/\/\/

"Everyone, assume Defensive Position Delta! We've got ourselves a full-on mad-girl!"

Susan didn't even register the man's orders as her hands were too busy sending commands with one hand and blasting away with another. Before, she had thought the situation hopeless with her limited resources and limited skills with a rifle, but once she managed to scramble her way to the Master Control Unit, it was if someone had shifted an entire handful of knights to her side of the board. And she was making the most of it.

She had long since mastered the skill needed to type one handed with above average speeds and owed a great deal of her current success to the skill. The other was busy firing into the scurrying forms of the agents attempting to avoid the brilliant beams that struck at them. One would occasional get enough breathing room to get in a shot, but Susan simply dodged and the shot went back to pelting them with laser fire while the drones on the floor hammered away at them with metal fists, spinning blades, and even javelins.

She couldn't even begin to explain the rush she was getting from the whole experience. Deep in the heat of battle, her blood thumping through her veins and her mind racing to keep up with the constant demands for reactions to action. And she was winning. And that was exhilarating. Not even the few times Gil Nexdor had acknowledged had she felt such a rush. Was this what her brother whenever he did one of his stupid stunts? If so, she simply had to have more of it.

And as she did, she ignored the fact that her face had twisted into a broad grin of manic glee and her glasses were twisted askew as her eyes pierced deeply into her targets.

"That's right, you cowering fools! I am Susan Q. Test! Fall before the might of my army built through my genius!" she shouted and broke out into a laugh that would've put Dracula to shame

The troops on the floor were all pressed tightly together at this point, all firing constantly at the approaching mass of moving steel men. A taller, more muscular member ducked and sent a flurry of ionized fire through the offending robot's torso. He whipped his head around and shouted at the man in the middle of the protective circle.

"Is it ready yet, Private!?" he could barely hear the order himself through all that was going on

"Give it another few seconds, Sir!" the man yelled back as he tinkered with a small box shaped object

An antenna suddenly was produced from a top the contraption and began to slowly whir as it gathered a blue hue aura around it. The aura intensify with each revolution, sending off sparks before finally, at its zenith, exploding outwards and engulfing everything in a field of rich, dark blue. The machines as well as the room shudder and sputtered before they all grew dim and ceased their motion, those in the air filling the quiet room with sound as they crashed to the floor.

Susan growled under her breath. An EMP burst! How could she not have seen this coming?! Hoisting her weapon up on her shoulders, she made to send a blast into the group before realizing that her weapon was useless. She could only shout in fury as she watched them all gather up their injured and run away.

"Get back here! The fun's only getting start!" Susan suddenly clasped her mouth shut. She was spending way too much time with Wacko, his brand of ludicrous was starting to rub off of her.

\/\/\/\/

Louis used the distraction the noise provided to elbow the in the chin and regretted it a second later. He hit the water and began sinking like a rock before he felt a familiar furry grip wrap around his own. Dukey hauled him out of the lake and aimed the Chilicino onto his forearm, blasting the surface and sending them skywards., freezing the liquid cold and snaring the leg of the federal agent. Said agent frowned as he watched the two race off, placing a finger to his ear.

"This is Achromatic calling all remaining teams. The mission is a failure. Pull out and meet at the rendezvous point." With that, he pointed his wrist at the ice and blasted it with a concentrated beam of heat.

Breaking free, he stared back at the now smoking lair. It was really a shame they had to leave empty handed, but protocol called for a retreat whenever first contact becomes too heated. They were under equipped this time. Next time they wouldn't be.

Caution Sign.

Mary hated to admit it but the man was right: she had no idea who she was dealing with. Her blaster was firing on all cylinders and still, she couldn't land a single hit. The N-Men all avoid with quick turns and maneuvers, shots that would've frozen them solid missing them by a mile. But Mr. Inert was unrealistically nimbly for a man his size and seemed to further mock her as he leaped high avoid her shots and then fly into complex moves that made every cheerleader she knew look like mannequins.

She yelped as she ducked hand that made for her arm and she rolled forward and out of harm's way. Back on her feet, she fired rapidly, hoping to score a hit only to come up empty. Mary scowled at her lousy luck and fire randomly to her side. A smile appeared on her face when she heard the blast finally make contact. _One down, _Mary thought and looked around the yard _Only ten more to go._

CREESN! Mary looked behind her and nearly face faulted when she saw that the agent had escaped the

ice already. And that moment of surprise cost her as she felt her hand suddenly grow lighter. She looked and saw that another agent was holding the Bling-Bling Blaster before chucking it clear out of sight. The red head groaned. Now she was outnumbered and defenseless. She eased her hand into her pocket, searching them in hopes of finding something useful. She felt her fingers brush against familiar fabric.

She felt a stab of fear grip her. She really didn't want to use untested tech especially in the middle of such a dangerous situation, but it wasn't as if current events gave her much chose. Breathing out a held breath, she pulled out the headband and slipped it onto her forehead. No sooner did she did she duck, avoiding a hand aimed at her. She backpedaled and side stepped another and then avoided another.

Soon, Mary was in a very strange and difficult dance, one which involved her doing everything she could not to get caught as her opponents struck at all angles to try and get a firm grip on the girl. As time passed, however, she soon found that they're strikes have a pattern and she quickly saw fit to take advantage of that.

It had felt strangely...detached. The blow that unleashed from Mary hand to the agent didn't feel as though she was the one who had made it. It felt as thought something else was guiding her and she found herself surrendering to it completely. In an instant, she leaped out of their swirling circle and sent a kick into the lower back of one of her attackers. She ducked and pivoted, an elbow planting itself in the agents face.

The blond stayed away from the fight, watching it with great interest. A moment ago, the girl was doing exactly as well as a girl her age should of been capable of doing and now, she was handing his agents their butts. It was if she had learned their style of fighting simply by watching them, but it wasn't a perfect copy. She stance was sloppy and her blows were aimed in strikes far to off to be able to hit their target under any other circumstance. As he mused this, he stumbled forward. Adjusting his shades, he looked back to see a boy with flame-like hair and a very ticked off face.

Not bothering with introductions, he rushed forwards swinging into a flurry of punches aimed at the man's side. The man skipped backwards only for the boy to follow him, continuing with his trend of intense strikes. The man held up his arm to absorb the assault, noting that the boy was now switching to hooks and was throwing his whole weigh into it.

Largely ignoring the boy, he looked over his shoulder to notice that girl had escaped his men and was sending a roundhouse for his head. He blocked the attack and sent both kids away with a push, displaying his superior strength. They both took they're respective stances and Mr. Inert chuckled.

"Okay, okay. Unlike plenty of people I know, I know when to admit when I'm impressed." he directed his attention to Mary, who was already charging to with a flying heel jump kick "That headband of yours probably increases your learning ability so you're able to learn things at an accelerated rate. Gotta hand it to you for making something that advanced with obvious limitations on supplies."

Mary grunted as she blocked a strike at her torso only to have to dodge half a second later "But its not perfect. Whatever you see takes time for the brain to fully process, which is why your technique is about as sloppy as a three year old's finger paintings. And then there's the fact that you can only recognize things you already seen."

A hand shot to her forehead and the teen suddenly gasped as her vision filled with darkness. The man held the moon shaped hair clip in his hands before sweeping Mary's legs out from under her. The agent didn't bother to turn as he clothes-lined the flame haired boy.

"You've got good form." Mr. Inert side stepped an uppercut and step back from strike "And good chin, too. You're an in-fighter, which figures since your kinda short for someone your age."

Johnny swung again at the man, but his attack was blocked and he received a palm to his chest. He clasped at it as air rushed out of his lungs before he received another strike, this time to the back of his neck.

"But you're still way too young to even think of taking on someone like me. You've got poor reaction time, your foot work's all over the place, and you've got no real power to back up all that aggression. So nice try, but better luck next life, kid." the man finished with a strike near the base of Johnny neck, watching as the boy went rigid and toppled over.

He turned his back to go and fetch the girl when he felt a sting in his side. He grasp it and turned around, expecting the boy to be back on his feet, but not a punch that sent him sprawling back on his rear. Shaking the stars from his eyes, he looked up to see the form of a very large boy with a deadly serious look on his face.

The blond had never in his life seen a kid this big before. He knew he had to have hit puberty way early to have such musculature. He leaped to his feet and quickly blocked a punch, ducking under a kick a moment later. The boy adjusted his footing and charged and swung with a right hook. The agent moved to block it, but doubled over as a second fist found itself in his midsection. Kneeling, he shot the boy a look before noticing the gather crowd of people.

"Well, can't say it hasn't been fun, but we've got places to be. See ya, next time." with that, he touched his cuff link and he and his goons vanished completely from sight.

Mary slowly regained her strength and rose to her feet, shaking her head. The lawn was covered in ice and skid marks where the battle had taken place. The girl knew there would heck to pay if this was taken care of immediately and already started dialing up the Construction Drones. At the very least her headband had proved a success. That was about when she heard a familiar high pitch scream.

"WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TO THE LAWN!?" Hugo Test yelled and directed his gaze to his two children "Johnny...Mary..."

The older girl suddenly found that the headband's successful test run was little compensation for the punishment that was about to be dished out.

Yield.

Disastrous.

That was the only word that seemed to describe how badly the day had went. Hours of hard work had been sent down the drain as her count showed that several of the Robo-Walkers were totaled, five Omni-Bots needed to be replaced, and even one of the massive M.A.W's had been largely destroyed. Not to mention the central mainframe was spazzing out and the internal sub-routines were all but fired thanks to that cursed EMP. Susan shook her head in despair, wondering just what she should tackle first.

"They really did a number on the joint, huh?"

Susan face-palmed as the last person she wanted to see at the moment suddenly appeared next to her. She knew what was coming, knew the condescending remarks about how spectacularly she'd failed and that she'd never see that room or Dukey or that room or her android or the room and did she forget to mention the room? Closing her eyes, she resigned herself to her fate and turned to her captor and was shocked to see him wearing such a pleased expression.

"This was a great trail run!" she blinked at him before responding with a 'Whatcha say?'

"True, I _was _gonna have you raid the next town over with them, but this was a much better test and one you were less likely to rebel against. The troops preformed better than I ever hoped! Your modification worked marvelously, my lovely assistant! Now, I do believe a reward is in order-" he stopped himself when he saw the tears streaming down the girl's face.

Never, in her entire life, had anyone praised her work in such a way. At the institute, it was considered by many to be standard fare for someone of her talents. Public school had labeled her a freak and shunned her. Even her parents congratulations felt forced, as if they were obligated to think anything she did was amazing and perfect. But never had anyone said it like Wacko had.

Sincerely. Genuine sincere praise.

Before she could stop herself, she wrapped her arms around the man, squeezing him tightly. The man was stunned at the action, an act that was so unlike the girl he'd gotten to know over the past two weeks. And fact that she was crying...maybe her life wasn't as perfect as he had thought? And just as soon as the contact started, it went as she disconnected from him and glared up into his eyes with intense fury.

"You mention this to anyone..." she let the threat hang before snatching the keys and marching off to her room

Wacko stared at the vanishing form of his assistant before smiling fondly "Wouldn't dream of it."

**Author's Notes: **Finally finished at just over seven thousand words. Didn't expect it to be so long, but hey, that's just how things work out for me. I really like how this chapter came out as we introduce two new threats that could be the heroes worse nightmare: competent agents. Susan shows her softer side and Mary kicks some butt. Next chapter, we get more info on the agents and Mittens decided to 'talk' to Dukey. Well, TTFN!


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes: **HAPPY NEW YEAR! Sorry for the completely uncalled for lateness of this chapter. But hey, hopefully it'll be worth the wait. Part of my Resolution is to work harder at perfecting my art and as such this story will most likely be complete before February. Well, on with the Fic!

Entirely Probable

Chapter 6: Catalyzing Reactions

The Mobile Omni-Directional Terra Fortress was smoldering. Considering the fact that it'd been largely on fire and teetering on the brink of complete and total collapse, it was a very marked improvement. The Automated Repair Mechs had set out quickly, rapidly and efficiently dousing, stabilizing, and fixing the areas that had demanded the most attention. Brain-Freezer's lab had been one of them.

It had been a relief that only the bare minimum had been affected by the intrusion; after all, he'd spent the greater part of a year putting the place together. And it also meant that most of his inventions and works-in-progress had survived. Thankful, the Accelerated Regeneration Chamber had been amongst them.

The sleek, rectangular covering of the device was clamped firmly shut around Dukey's arm, hissing with spurts of steam and bright flashes of sparks of electricity. The dog's teeth were gritted and his free hand pounded on his thigh, hoping to draw attention away from the pain. That was the chamber's major drawback: it could greatly enhance the rate at which injuries healed but at the same time, the patient would feel every, single action of the cell's mitosis. Which was excruciating.

The teen had long since deactivated his cryogenic armor and so his non-flash frozen head hung limply in shame. This had been all his fault. The mutant dog would've never been in this situation if he hadn't helped kidnap him in the first place. Of course, then he wouldn't have gotten the chance to ever have known him. And that made the situation even more bleak: either never have known him and have continued to feel alone or to know him and have this happen to him.

"Maybe that guy was right," he hung his head low, shoulders slumping "Maybe my inventions are useless."

"Don't say that!" the boy snapped his head up, meeting the slightly tearing eyes of his lab assistant "Your inventions are great!"

At that moment, the chamber had opened, releasing his arm to reveal its newly reformed appearance free of any blemishes "Just look at this! This would've taken weeks to heal but your machine just did it in less than a hour!"

Louis gazed at the canine's arm, which had now moved and rested on his shoulder. He looked up and gave the dog a smile.

"Thanks." Louis said, posture righting itself

The genetically modified pooch returned the gesture "No problem. What're friends for?"

"Oh, how touching." Both swiveled their head's towards the door "I think I might actually lose my lunch."

The teen genius felt his friend's paw clench around his shoulder and he casted the cat his most menacing glare. In his normal state the effects had been drastically diminished, but the feline acknowledged him with a nonplussed face. The burgundy cat's attention returned to Dukey.

"Come, thrall. I have use of you." his tone was as cold as the arctic circle and the hairs on the mutt's neck stood on end.

The dog gave his buddy a look, gulped, and followed behind in step with his master.

Road Closed.

Why?

That had been the question Mary had found herself asking herself for the past two hours. Night had long since blanketed the sky, draping all of Porkbelly under the dark, velvet cloak of darkness. Everyone in the house had long since fallen asleep, leaving her as the lone soul that had gone unvisited by the sandman. She slowly shifted under the fleece sheets of her bed, her actual bed, and found that sleep still eluded her.

With nothing to do, she re-ran the events of the day in her head. Dad had been furious when he saw the state of the front lawn after their fight with the mysterious secret agents who had, of course, vanished into thin air with no sign of their even being there. Which was why they had spent the afternoon and well into evening cleaning and replanting the front yard, completely barred from help via Construction Drone.

Eugene had finally saw need to return home, although he'd done so with much seen hesitation. No doubt his mother would be fuming, awaiting an explanation for his sudden week long disappearance. Bumper had also decided to return home, but not before punching Johnny and demanding his person tomorrow for some 'hardcore and intensive' training. Dinner had been one of their father's meatloaf experiments and they had just barely managed to ingest the meal before clamoring for the right to have first dibs on the bathroom.

All of this plus the fact that she still no closer to knowing the whereabouts of her abducted twin should've left her tired. But alas, it didn't. Her mind was up and revving and so, she was doomed to consciousness until it finally ran itself out. As she laid back and prepared for what was likely to be another long night of boring wakefulness, there was a knock on her door. She sighed.

"Johnny, go back to sleep. I'm not doing any late night experiments for you this time." she bundled herself tighter within the large ball of fabric, but she suddenly heard a voice from the other side.

"Um…I can come back, you know, if this isn't a good time?" That was definitely not her brother.

She untangled herself from the sheets and carefully walked up to the door, swinging it open silently to reveal the form of Eugene. Donned in a bathrobe of plush faux fur and lined with a furry rim of fluffy whiteness. The boy shuffled his feet between one another, looking up at the taller girl with an impish smile and nervous chuckle. She gave him an annoyed look.

"What do you want, Bling-Bling?" she asked, wanting to get back to her non-sleep "It's almost midnight."

More nervous laughter and twitches. She rolled her eyes, knowing that if she didn't return to bed soon, she never get any sleep in. Finally, the rich, evil boy genius found his voice "Um, I was wondering, you know maybe, if-if it's not too much trouble, I-if I could maybe, possibly…sleep with you?"

The girl stared at him. Her first reaction, a few weeks ago, would've been to sic her security defense system on the boy and allow him to be carried off to the nearest deserted island and leave him there. Now, as annoyed as she was, one look into those glossy pools of brown had destroyed any resistant she might've built up. With a sigh, the door creaked open wider.

"Come in."

The boy gave a faint gasp and nodded frantically with a smile. His round form hobbled into the room and she closed the door behind her. The boy had already hopped into her bed, stationing himself along the right side of the bed. The red haired girl genius shook her head and climbed in as well, placing herself on the left and by the nightstand. Her hand reached out, ready to turn off the light when a hand grabbed her shoulder.

"Don't!" the boy's voice was raised, more so than it should've been and he quickly corrected it "I…I kinda like it with the lights on."

"Bling-Bling," a mischievous smile was creeping onto her face "you're not afraid of the dark, are you?"

The boy gave her just the look she had been expecting, shock and appall "What?! No, of course not! I just…don't like to sleep in the dark."

"But humans are light active animals." she was quick to back up her argument with facts "So, by having a light on, you're actually keeping yourself awake."

The boy looked at her, trying to find a counter-argument. She gave him a look and her eyes softened when she saw how genuinely scared he appeared to be "I'll leave it on for half an hour, so you better be sleep by then."

The boy once again nodded enthusiastically. The covers had slipped over his head and the girl could hear the boy attempting to force himself to sleep and failing miserably. After five minutes, they'd found themselves deep in a conversation about the possibility of Unifying String Theory being an unattainable feat and a folly on man's part due to their own arrogance of thinking they can know everything. Fifteen minutes later had seen them get into an argument over ice cream toppings that had ended in a pillow fight. At thirty minutes, both were knocked out, having worn themselves out with each other's company.

Bling-Bling moved an arm and wrapped it around Mary's shoulder, snuggling close to her. Mary didn't fight it and drifted into REM sleep with a ghost of a smile on her face.

Traffic Upcoming.

"I can't believe you!"

"Well I can't believe you! My formula for Carbonated Combat-Ready Beverage Grenades is fool-proof with a 0.0036 percent error and a cherry flavoring!"

"Ha! Yeah, it would be _if _you didn't forget to factor in the availability of open air exchange through the semi-permeable membrane design _you _chose!"

"Yeah?! Well…hey, you're right. If I'd of set that off, we'd be blown half-way out into Memphis."

"More like Frankfort, but that's the gist of it. I also noticed that the Rate-of-Carbonation dropped around fifteen percent after five minutes of activation. I think if we can stabilize the distribution system, we might be able to decrease the numbers to somewhere around four percent instead."

Wacko and Susan had been working hard on one of the diminutive man's invention for the past few hours and they had finally had a breakthrough with only a few critical meltdowns and threat of self-destruction. The idea of making a bomb from a soda would've seen ludicrous to almost anyone else, but to the two scientists, it was a difficult, but completely manageable feat.

Susan had finally found a moment to relax, wiping perspiration from her brow with her sleeve. She had been working on trying to hem the lab coat, to make it fit her frame instead of falling off her like some fumbling toddler masquerading on All Hollow's Eve. Alas, sewing continued to be her worst enemy and she had no desire to sit at her desk and wrestle with far-too-small-and-delicate needles and barely-visible thread.

On a different note, she had to say that she was still happy. Her room had everything she could need: a fully stocked chemical cabinet, eye wash station, access to mechanical parts, a bed with a real mattress, reading desk, book shelf, bathroom, closet, and an amazingly up-to-date computer. She hadn't even used the bed until after she collapsed from exhaustion two days after she had acquired the abode. Too many ideas had been in her head and were finally released into physical form after so long that she had completely forgotten about rest; her body didn't.

The madman had given her the rest of the day today, which was perfect. She'd been meaning to get back to work on that working model of a quantum singularity. Of course, she'd destroy it as soon as she was finished. After all, black holes were dangerous. She just needed to proved that she could do it if she wanted to. It was totally not an ego thing.

As she left the lab, she felt the far off explosion from somewhere down the hall. Any other time, she would've tried to investigate but not today. Today she would finally finish some of her projects. After all, these guys were super-villains. She was pretty sure that they could handle themselves.

Yield.

The dog fell to the ground with thud, the air leaving his lungs in a ragged, harsh cough. Through squinted eyes, he looked up and saw his assailant looming down over him. The cat patted the plunt object in his paws: a foam bat. The dog had thought that because of the fact that it was indeed foam and not the unforgivingness of stainless steel or solid oak, he wouldn't get it so bad this time.

Wrong. The bat had hit him again and he felt his neck jerk painfully as the bat hit with the backed might of the feline impressive upper body strength. His head met painfully with the chair behind him and he toppled clumsily over it. He felt a sudden tugging on his ears an tears stung at the corners of his eyes. The feline's claws were digging cruelly into the thin appendages, easily drawing blood.

A sharp backhand sent him to the floor, claw marks tracing his muzzle as crimson liquid flowed and stained his fur. He gazed up at his tormentor, a wicked grin on his face as he held something new in his paws: a bucket of ice-filled water. He had only a moment to look terrified before the bucket's contents were emptied onto him. A scream briefly escaped his mouth and the feline cracked a dark grin and chuckled deeply in his throat.

Clothes now damp and heavy with water, he shivered as the wet material clung in his body making him shake violently. The cat then roughly grabbed his face, and forced it towards his own.

"You know, I could keep doing this to you; toying with physical limits until you finally snap and have that nervous breakdown that you've been due for a while now." the mutt squirmed as claws dug in deeper, a few digging into the open wounds "But I think I'd rather hit you where it really hurts."

The cat snapped his fingers and suddenly a section of the wall dismantled and pulled away in a hiss of pistons. Laying on a series of grapples and hooks was a bright, neon red gun that looked deceivably like one of flare variety with a orange finish. He let his thrall drop to the floor, retrieving the weapon and looking it over with a critical eye.

"This is my latest invention. It creates a dome a kinetic energy that speeds up the molecules of whatever's inside until the object either burns or ionizes to the highest state of matter. I call it The Burn Room." his fingers drummed against the device in a way that made a chill run up Dukey's spine that wasn't from the water "Now, I wonder how Brain-Freezer would take it? Seeing as his technology function best at sub zero temperatures."

The causality in his tone belayed his true intentions. The very thought of the crazed manic getting his hands on the teen made his heart stop in his chest. And it was at that moment that he had decided that he wouldn't let that happen. Mr. Mittens took a step back when he saw the mutt get to his feet and stare at him in the most intimidating look he'd ever seen. His hand went to the remote on his person.

"Listen here, you sick, twisted, pathetic waste of fur." his hand shot out, catching the front of the cat and pulling him in close "You can do whatever you want to me and I'll take it. But if _ever _so much as _think _about harming a single molecule around Louis or Mary…"

The feline's face had gone pale, the larger and currently furious canine baring down on him in a manner that made him wish he was back under his mother's watch "Tic for Tac."

With that, the cat was left to fall to the floor as the dog marched out the room and closed the door with a slam. For the first time in a long time, Mr. Mittens felt like any other cat would've: scared, frightened, and wanting desperately for a tree to race up of.

Dead End.

Agent Inert was restless.

Ever since those kids had manage to get the better of him, he'd been eagerly awaiting a chance to return and mend his battered pride. His stomach still hurt from that oddly powerful teenager. He fiddled with his cuffs, grumbling under his breath as he set about making the correct modifications.

His partner and friend Achromatic sat next to him in a separate arm chair, reclining and sipping casually from a ceramic cup of tea. The room they inhabited was dark, lit sparsely by stray rays of light that were allowed to slip through the crack in the blinds. Near the wall was a large desk behind which sat an even larger figure. His outfit was that of a general, medals and proof of valor decorated his barrel chest while the rest of his uniform was stretched tight by the muscles from underneath. His face was obscured by the darkness, but his voice more than made up that lack of definition to his person.

"Agents Inert and Achromatic," his voice was deep and rang with a vein of dissatisfaction "it's been brought to my attention that you failed to apprehend the subjects in questions?"

"I would've had the brats, sir, but they ambushed me!" the blond agent slammed his fist against a table that was veiled in darkness "By the time I'd gained the upper hand, we'd attracted too much attention to ourselves. We were forced to withdraw."

The man's form shifted towards the platinum agent "We had discovered Mr. Wacko hideout and had attempted to capture our target, however, we underestimated our opposition and were forced to withdraw as well."

The figure behind the desk made a move to rub his temples "I see. Well, in light of these developments, I'm afraid I must assign you to another case for the time being."

Inert opened his mouth to reply, but his friend cut him off. He knew better than to make the big guy angry. The figure adjusted himself in his seat, retrieving something from within the oak wood frame. Once it was in hand, he lit it. Inhaling, the cigar glowed brightly, casting further shadows on the man's face before a mist of smoke clouded his visage even further.

"You are to assist in the hostile take-over of a as of five months and eighteen days ago rouge faction of the military. They have been siphoning money to fund their ridiculous research and are acting under the guise of an actual military research facility. You are to go there and terminate anything that exist and to capture and apprehend those who work there for questioning." he inhaled once more, exhaling another thick cloud "I believe you two are already familiar with this facility."

Inert's hand shot up and caught the file that had appeared from seemingly nowhere. As he scanned the contents, his smile grew until it became almost Cheshire in proportion.

"Area 51.2, huh?" he tossed the folder to his colorless associate "Well, at least we get to pay our old friends a visit."

**Author's Notes: **Oh no, looks like our two secret agent misfits are in for some trouble. This chapter had more character and relationship development in it than anything else and I have to say it turned out pretty well. I should also warn you: this fic will be ending quite soon. Just a heads up. TTFN!


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